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THE   COUNTRY-LIFE   MOVEMENT 
IN  THE   UNITED   STATES 


7  61^    6 


XTbe  IRural  ©utiooft  Set 

THE  OUTLOOK  TO  NATURE  (Revised) 
THE  NATURE-STUDY  IDEA 
THE  STATE  AND    THE  FARMER 
THE  COUNTRY-LIFE  MOVEMENT 


The 

Country- Life  Movement 

in  the  United  States 


BY 
L.   H.   BAILEY 

2.  2l  3:2,0 


TStin  gorfe 

THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

1911 

Al/  r^ts  reserved 


3515 


COPTMGHT,     191 1, 

By  the   MACMILLAN    COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.    Published  March,  1911. 


•  •  i  •    ••     t  •     ••  «      •    *  •     .•       •       .     .,•••..        •     ,     '       , 


Voitoaob  Vms 

J.  8.  CuBhlng  Co.  —  Berwick  iSc  Smith  Oo. 

Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


HT 


TO 

Cbarles  m,  OarC[el& 

■SEER  OF  VISIONS,  PROPHET  OF  THE 
BETTER    COUNTRY    LIFE  — 

f  dedicate  tbls  budget 
ot  opinfona 


CONTENTS 

THE   COUNTRY-LIFE   MOVEMENT 
Pages  1-3 
It  is  not  a  back-to-the-land  movement,  i  —  This  book,  2. 

THE   NATIONAL   MOVEMENT 

Pages  4-13 

A  transition  period,  6  —  The  Commission  on  Coimtry 
Life,  7  —  The  three  fundamental  recommendations  of  the 
Commission,  9  —  A  national  conference  of  country  life,  12 
—  A  voluntary  movement,  1  z  —  The  international  phase,  1 3. 

SOME   INTERRELATIONS   OF   CITY 

AND   COUNTRY 

Pages  14-30 

Some  contrasts  of  town  folk  and  country  folk,  14 — Com-    \/^ 
parisons  of  town  and  country  affairs,  16  —  The  two  minds, 
1 7  —  Will  the  American  farmer  hold  his  own  ?   19  —  The     1 
first  two  remedies,  21  — -Movement  from  city  to  country  as"~  A 
remedy,  23  — Sending  the  surplus  population  to  the  country,     ^ 
25  —  Back-to-the-village,    26  —  Can    a    city   man    make    a 
living  on  a  farm  ?  27  —  What  the  city  may  do,  30. 

vii 


viii  Contents 

THE  DECLINE   IN    RURAL  POPULATION.— 
ABANDONED   FARMS 

Pages  31-43  , 

Significance  of  the  decline,  32 — The  abandoned  farms, 
37  —  The  new  farming,  41. 

RECLAMATION   IN   RELATION   TO   COUNTRY 
LIFE;    AND   THE   RESERVE   LANDS 

Pages  44-54 

The  interests  of  society  in  the  work,  45  —  A  broad 
reclamation  movement,  50  —  Supplemental  irrigation,  51  — 
We  need  reserves,  53. 

WHAT   IS   TO   BE   THE   OUTCOME   OF  OUR 
INDUSTRIAL   CIVILIZATION  ? 

Pages   5  5—60 

(i)  The  making  of  a  new  society,  56  —  (2)  The  fight- 
ing edge,  57. 

"THE    FUNDAMENTAL    QUESTION    IN   AMERI- 

.    ,  ,  CAN    COUNTRY   LIFE 

H  - 

r\  Pages  61-84 

!    \ 

Agriculture  in   the   public   schools,    62  —  The   American 
1    contribution,  65 — The  dangers  in  the  situation,  66  —  The 


Contents  ix 

present  educational  institutions,  68  —  TTie  need  of  plans  to 
coordmate  this  educational  work,  7 1  —  Outline  of  a  state 
plan,  72  —  A  state  extension  program,  75 — Special  local 
schools  for  agriculture,  76  —  The  lessons  of  experience,  79. 


WOMAN'S   CONTRIBUTION   TO   THE 
COUNTRY-LIFE   MOVEMENT 

Pages  85-96  , 
/" 

The  affairs  of  the  household,  88  —i  The  affairs  of  the  com- 
munity, 90  —  The  woman's  outlook,  92  —  The  means  of 
education,  93. 


HOW   SHALL  WE   SECURE   COMMUNITY     y 
LIFE  IN   THE   OPEN   COUNTRY?  ^ 

Pages  97—133 


Hamlet  life,  100  —  The  category  of  agencies,  104  (in 
crease  of  population,  105  ;  dividing  up  of  large  farms,  106  ;  / 
assembling  farms,  106  ;  recreative  life,  107  ;  local  politics,  \ 
108  ;  rural  government,  108  ;  community  program  for 
health,  1 1 2  ;  local  factories  and  industries,  l.i  6  ;  the  coun-  ] 
try  store,  118;  the  business  men's  organizations,  119;  great 
corporations,  120  ;  local  institutions,  122  ;\Jocal  rural  press, 
123  ;  many  kinds  of  extension  teaching,  123  ;  all  kinds  of 
communication,  124;  economic  or  business  cooperation, 
125  ;  personal  gumption  and  guidance,  132)  —  Conununity 
interest  is  of  the  spirit,  133. 


\ 

I 

V 


X  Contents 

[A   POINT   OF  VIEW   ON   THE   LABOR 
PROBLEM 

Pages   134-148 

Reasons  for  the  labor  question,  135  —  The  remedies,  137 
—  Public  or  social  bearings,  139  —  Supervision  in  farm 
labor,  142  —  What  is  the  farmer  to  do  ?  146. 

THE   MIDDLEMAN   QUESTION 

Pages  149—164 

Farmer  does  not  get  his  share,  1 49  —  Relation  of  the 
question  to  cost-of-living,  153 — The  farmer's  part,  156  — 
The  middleman's  part,  157 — A  system  of  economic  w^aste, 
158  —  Cooperation  of  farmers  will  not  solve  ^t,  158  —  It  is 
the  business  of  government,  1 60  —  Must  be  a  continuing 
process  of  control,  161. 


[COUNTY   AND   LOCAL  FAIRS 
Pages   165-177 

Nature  of  the  fair,  165 — Features  to  be  eliminated,  167 

—  Constructive  program,  167  —  The  financial  support,  168 

—  An  educational  basis,  169  —  Ask  every  person  to  prove 
up,  171  — Sports,  contests,  and  pageants,  173  —  Premiums, 
174  —  It  is  time  to  begin,  175  —  The  fair  ground,  176  — 
My  plea,  177. 


Contents  xi 

THE  COUNTRY-LIFE   PHASE   OF  CON- 
SERVATION 

Pages   178-200 

These  subjects  have  a  history,  1 80  —  They  are  not  party- 
politics  subjects,  182  —  The  soil  is  the  greatest  of  all  re- 
sources, 183  —  The  soil  crust,  185  —  No  man  has  a  right 
to  plunder  the  soil,  188  —  Ownership  vs.  conservation,  190 
—  The  philosophy  of  saving,  192  —  The  conservation  of 
food,  1 94  —  The  best  husbandry  is  not  in  the  new  regions, 
196  —  Another  philosophy  of  agriculture,  197 — The  obli- 
gation of  the  farmer,  198  — The  obligation  of  the  conserva- 
tion movement,  200. 

PERSONAL   SUGGESTIONS 

Pages  201—220 

The  open  country  must  solve  its  own  problems,  201  — 
Profitable  farming  is  not  a  sufficient  object  in  life,  202  — 
New  country  professions,  203  —  The  personal  resources, 
204  —  The  meaning  of  the  environment,  205  —  Historic 
monuments,  208  —  Improvement  societies,  209  —  Enter- 
tainment, 211  (Music  spirit,  212;  drama,  213) — The 
business  of  farming,  217. 


THE    COUNTRY-LIFE 
MOVEMENT 

^  The  country-life  movement  is  the  working 
out  of  the  desire  to  make  rural  civilization  as 
effective  and  satisfying  as  other  civilization. 

It  is  not  an  organized  movement  proceeding 
from  one  center  or  even  expressing  one  set  of 
ideas.  It  is  a  world-motive  to  even  up  society 
as  between  country  and  city;  for  it  is  generally 
understood  that  country  life  has  not  reached  as 
high  development  within  its  sphere  as  city  life 
has  reached  within  its  sphere. 

We  call  it  a  new  subject.  As  a  "  movement," 
or  a  recognized  set  of  problems  needing  atten- 
tion, it  may  possibly  be  called  new;  but  in 
reality  it  is  new  only  to  those  who  have  recently 
discovered  it. 

It  is  not  a  hack-to-the-land  movement. 

The  country-life  movement  must  be  sharply 
distinguished  from  the  present  popular  back- 


2        The  Country-Life  Movement 

to-the-land  agitation.  The  latter  is  primarily 
a  city  or  town  impulse,  expressing  the  desire 
of  townspeople  to  escape,  or  of  cities  to  find 
relief,  or  of  real  estate  dealers  to  sell  land ; 
and  in  part  it  is  the  result  of  the  doubtful 
propaganda  to  decrease  the  cost  of  living  by 
sending  more  persons  to  the  land,  on  the 
mostly  mistaken  assumption  that  more  prod- 
ucts will  thereby  be  secured  for  the  world's 
markets. 

The  back-to-the-land  agitation  is  not  neces- 
sarily to  be  discouraged,  yet  we  are  not  to  expect 
more  of  it  than  it  can  accomplish;  but  whatever 
the  outward  movement  to  the  land  may  be,  the 
effort  to  effectualize  rural  society,  for  the  people 
who  now  comprise  this  society,  is  one  of  the 
fundamental  problems   now  before  the  people. 

The  country-life  and  back-to-the-land  move- 
ments are  not  only  Httle  related,  but  in  many 
ways  they  are  distinctly  antagonistic. 

This  book. 

The  foregoing  paragraphs  indicate  the  subject 
of  this  book.     I  mean  only  to  express  opinions 


The  Country-Life  Movement         3 

on  a  few  of  the  questions  that  are  popularly 
under  discussion,  or  that  are  specially  important 
at  this  time.  I  shall  present  no  studies,  and  I 
intend  to  follow  no  systematic  course.  Some 
of  these  subjects  I  have  already  discussed  with 
the  public,  but  they  may  now  have  new  expres- 
sion or  relations. 

The  lack  of  adjustment  between  city  and 
country  must  be  remedied,  but  the  remedies 
lie  in  fundamental  processes  and  not  in  the 
treatment  of  symptoms.  Undoubtedly  very 
much  can  be  done  to  even  up  the  economic 
situation  and  the  distribution  of  population; 
and  this  needs  careful  and  continuous  study  by 
commissions  or  other  agencies  created  for  the 
purpose.  We  are  scarcely  in  sight  of  the  good 
that  such  agencies  could  accomplish.  I  hope 
that  this  book  may  suggest  some  of  the  things 
to  be  considered.  The  past  century  belonged 
to  the  city ;  the  present  century  should  belong 
also  to  agriculture  and  the  open  country. 


THE  NATIONAL  MOVEMENT 

The  present  revival  of  rural  interest  is  imme- 
diately an  effort  to  improve  farming;  but  at 
bottom  it  is  a  desire  to  stimulate  new  activity 
in  a  more  or  less  stationary  phase  of  civilization. 
We  may  over-exploit  the  movement,  but  it  is 
sound  at  the  center.  For  the  next  twenty-five 
years  we  may  expect  it  to  have  great  influence 
on  the  course  of  events,  for  it  will  require  this 
length  of  time  to  balance  up  society.  Politi- 
cians will  use  it  as  a  means  of  riding  into  power. 
Demagogues  and  fakirs  will  take  advantage  of 
it  for  personal  gain.  Tradesmen  will  make 
much  of  it.  Writers  are  even  now  beginning 
to  sensationalize  it. 

But  there  will  also  arise  countrymen  with 
statesmanship  in  them ;  if  not  so,  then  we  can- 
not make  the  progress  that  we  need.  The  move- 
ment will  have  its  significant  political  aspect, 
and  we  may  look  for  governors  of  states  and 
perhaps  more  than  one  President  of  the  United 

4 


The  National  Movement  5 

States  to  come  out  of  it.  In  the  end,  the 
farmer  controls  the  politics  because  he  makes  the 
crops  on  which  the  wealth  of  the  country  de- 
pends. There  is  probably  a  greater  proportion 
of  tax-payers  among  voting  farmers  than  among 
city  people. 

Considered  in  total  results,  educational  and 
political  as  well  as  social  and  economic,  the 
country-life  movement  in  North  America  is 
probably  farther  advanced  than  in  any  other 
part  of  the  world.  It  may  not  have  such  strik- 
ing manifestations  in  some  special  lines,  and 
our  people  rrtay  not  need  so  much  as  other 
peoples  that  these  particular  lines  be  first  or 
most  strongly  attacked.  The  movement  really 
has  been  under  way  for  many  years,  but  it  has 
only  recently  found  separate  expression.  Most 
of  the  progress  has  been  fundamental,  and  will 
not  need  to  be  done  over  again.  The  move- 
ment is  well  afoot  among  the  country  people 
themselves,  and  they  are  doing  some  of  the 
clearest  thinking  on  the  situation.  Many  of 
our  own  people  do  not  know  how  far  we  have 
already  come. 


6         The  Country-Life  Movement 

A  transition  period. 

Such  undercurrent  movements  are  usually 
associated  with  transition  epochs.  In  parts  of 
the  Old  World  the  nexus  in  the  social  structure 
has  been  the  landlord,  and  the  change  in  land- 
tenure  systems  has  made  a  social  reorganization 
necessary.  There  is  no  political  land-tenure 
problem  in  the  United  States,  and  therefore 
there  is  no  need,  on  that  score,  of  the  coopera- 
tion of  small  owners  or  would-be  owners  to 
form  a  new  social  crystallization.  But  there 
is  a  land  problem  with  us,  nevertheless,  and 
this  is  at  the  bottom  of  our  present  movement : 
it  is  the  immanent  problem  of  remaining  more 
or  less  stationary  on  our  present  lands,  rather 
than  moving  on  to  untouched  lands,  when 
the  ready-to-use  fertility  is  reduced.  We  have 
had  a  new-land  society,  with  all  the  marks  of 
expansion  and  shift.  We  are  now  coming  to 
a  new  era ;  but,  unlike  new  eras  in  some  other 
countries,  it  is  not  complicated  by  hereditary 
social  stratification.  Our  real  agricultural  de- 
velopment will  now  begin. 


The  National   Movement  j 

In  the  discussion  of  these  rural  interests, 
old  foundations  and  old  ideas  in  all  probability 
will  be  torn  up.  We  shall  probably  discard 
many  of  the  notions  that  now  are  new  and 
that  promise  well.  We  may  face  trying  situa- 
tions, but  something  better  will  come  out 
of  it.  It  is  now  a  time  to  be  conservative 
and  careful,  and  to  let  the  movement  mature. 

The  commission  on  country  life. 

The  first  organized  expression  of  the  country- 
life  movement  in  the  United  States  was  the 
appointment  of  the  Commission  on  Country 
Life  by  President  Roosevelt  in  August,  1908. 
It  was  a  Commission  of  exploration  and  sug- 
gestion. It  could  make  no  scientific  studies 
of  its  own  within  the  time  at  its  command, 
but  it  could  put  the  situation  before  the  people. 
President  Roosevelt  saw  the  country-life  prob- 
lem and  attacked  it. 

^  The  Commission  made  its  Report  to  the 
President  early  in  1909.  It  found  the  general 
level  of  country  life  in  the  United  States  to  be 
good  as  compared   with  that  of  any  previous 


8         The  Country-Life  Movement 

time,  but  yet  "  that  agriculture  is  not  com- 
mercially as  profitable  as  it  is  entitled  to  be  for 
the  labor  and  energy  that  the  farmer  expends 
and  the  risks  that  he  assumes,  and  that  the 
social  conditions  in  the  open  country  are  far 
short  of  their  possibilities." 

A  dozen  large  reasons  for  this  state  of  affairs, 
a  state  that  directly  curtails  the  efficiency  of  the 
nation,  are  given  in  the  Report ;  and  it  suggests 
many  remedies  that  can  be  set  in  motion  by 
Congress,  states,  communities,  and  individuals. 
The  three  "  great  movements  of  the  utmost 
consequence  that  should  be  set  under  way  at 
the  earhest  possible  time,  because  they  are  fun- 
damental to  the  whole  problem  of  ultimate  per- 
manent reconstruction"  are:  taking  inventory 
of  country  life  by  means  of  "  an  exhaustive 
study  or  survey  of  all  the  conditions  that  sur- 
round the  business  of  farming  and  the  peo- 
ple who  live  in  the  country,  in  order  to  take 
stock  of  our  resources  and  to  supply  the  farmer 
with  local  knowledge " ;  the  organizing  of  a 
nationalized  extension  work ;  the  inauguration 
of  a  general  campaign  of  rural  progress. 


The  National  Movement  9 

It  is  suggested  that  Congress  provide  **some 
means  or  agency  for  the  guidance  of  public 
opinion  toward  the  development  of  a  real  rural 
society  that  shall  rest  directly  on  the  land." 

The  Report  of  the  Commission  on  Country 
Life  makes  no  discussion  of  the  city-to-country 
movement. 

The  Report  recognizes  the  fundamental  im- 
portance of  the  agricultural  experiment  sta- 
tions and  of  the  great  chain  of  land-grant 
colleges  and  of  government  departments  and  of 
other  agencies ;  and  the  work  that  it  proposes 
is  intended  to  be  supplementary  to  them. 

The   three  fundamental   recommendations  of 
the  Commission. 

The  taking  stock  of  the  exact  condition  and 
materials  of  country  life  is  immensely  impor- 
tant, for  we  cannot  apply  remedies  before  we 
make  a  diagnosis,  and  an  accurate  diagnosis 
must  rest  on  a  multitude  of  facts  that  we  do 
not  now  possess.  This  is  the  scientific  rather 
than  the  doctrinaire,  politics,  and  oracular 
method  of  approaching  the  subject.     It  is  of 


lo      The  Country-Life  Movement 

the  first  importance  that  we  do  not  set  out 
on  this  new  work  with  only  general  opinions 
and  superficial  and  fragmentary  knowledge. 
Every  rural  community  needs  to  have  a  pro- 
gram of  its  own  carefully  worked  out,  and 
this  program  should  rest  on  a  physical  valua- 
tion. It  may  be  some  time  yet  before  the 
importance  and  magnitude  of  this  undertak- 
ing will  impress  the  minds  of  the  people, 
but  it  is  essential  to  the  best  permanent 
progress. 

Agricultural  extension  work  of  a  well-organ- 
ized kind  is  now  beginning  to  come  out  of 
the  colleges  of  agriculture,  and  this  must  be 
extended  and  systematized  so  that,  with  other 
agencies,  it  may  reach  every  last  man  on  the 
land.  A  bill  to  set  this  work  in  motion  is 
now  before  Congress. 

The  third  recommendation  of  the  Commis- 
sion for  immediate  action  is  "  the  holding  of 
local,  state,  and  even  national  conferences  on 
rural  progress,  designed  to  unite  the  interests 
of  education,  organization,  and  religion  into 
one  forward  movement  for  the  re-building  of 


The  National  Movement  1 1 

country  life.  Rural  teachers,  librarians,  clergy- 
men, editors,  physicians,  and  others  may  well 
unite  with  farmers  in  studying  and  discussing 
the  rural  question  in  all  its  aspects.  We  must 
in  some  way  unite  all  institutions,  all  organiza- 
tions, all  individuals  having  any  interest  in 
country  life  into  one  great  campaign  for  rural 
progress." 

Conferences  are  now  being  held  in  many""' 
parts  of  the  Union  by  universities,  colleges, 
state  departments  of  agriculture,  chambers  of 
commerce,  business  organizations,  and  other 
bodies.  This  will  make  public  opinion.  Such 
conventions,  discussing  the  larger  social,  politi- 
cal, and  economic  relations  of  country  life, 
should  now  be  held  in  every  state  and  geo- 
graphical region. 

It  is  now  time  that  states  undertake  country- 
life  programs.  There  is  still  much  attack  of 
symptoms ;  but  persons  in  political  offices,  for 
the  most,  are  not  yet  well-enough  informed  to 
make  the  most  of  the  rural  situation  as  it  exists,^ 
or  to  utilize  to  the  best  advantage  the  talent  and) 
the  institutions  that  the  country  now  possesses.) 


12       The  Country-Life  Movement 

One  has  only  to  read  the  recommendations  to 
legislative  bodies  to  recognize  the  relative  lack 
as  yet  of  constructive  plans  for  the  improve- 
ment of  rural  conditions. 

A  national  conference  on  country  life. 

If  there  should  be  state  and  local  confer- 
ences for  country  life,  so  also  should  there  be 
a  national  conference,  meeting  yearly.  Such 
a  conference  should  not  be  an  agricultural 
convention  in  the  ordinary  sense,  nor  is  it 
necessary  that  it  be  held  in  commanding  agri- 
cultural regions.  It  should  deal  with  the  larger 
affairs  and  relations  in  their  applications  to  rural 
civilization. 

A  voluntary  movement. 

The  interest  in  country  life  is  gradually  as- 
suming shape  as  a  voluntary  movement  outside 
of  government,  as  it  properly  should  do.  It 
should  be  in  the  best  sense  a  popular  move- 
ment; for  if  it  is  not  a  really  popular  move- 
ment, it  can  have  little  vitality,  and  exert  httle 


The  National  Movement  1 3 

effect  on  the  mass  of  the  people.  As  it  gets 
under  motion,  certain  things  will  crystallize  out 
of  it  for  government  to  do ;  and  governments 
will  do  them. 

As   a  pure  matter   of  propagation,    such  a 
voluntary  organized  movement  would  have  the 
greatest  value ;  for,  in  these  days,  simple  pub- 
licity often  accomplishes  more  than  legislative    /^ 
action. 

The  international  phase. 

If  the  interest  in  rural  economics  and  soci- 
ology is  world  wide,  then  we  should  have  ^ 
international  institutions  to  represent  it.  Sev- 
eral organizations  now  represent  or  include  cer- 
tain phases.  We  need  such  an  institution  not 
so  much  for  propaganda  as  for  research.  A 
Country  Life  Institute  has  been  proposed  by 
Sir  Horace  Plunkett,  who  is  so  well  known 
and  admired  by  all  students  of  rural  situations 
through  his  far-seeing  work  in  Ireland  and 
his  many  fruitful  suggestions  for  America.  It 
would  seem  that  here  is  an  unusual  opportunity 
for  a  great  and  productive  foundation. 


SOME  INTER-RELATIONS  OF  CITY 
AND    COUNTRY 

Every  one  knows  that  city  populations  are 
increasing  more  rapidly  than  country  popula- 
tions. By  some  persons,  this  of  itself  is  con- 
sidered to  be  a  cause  for  much  alarm.  But  the 
relative  size  of  the  populations  is  not  so  disturb- 
ing as  the  economic  and  social  relations  existing 
between  these  two  phases  of  civilization. 

Some  contrasts  of  town  folk  and  country  folk. 

We  know  that  farming  is  the  primitive  and 
underlying  business  of  mankind.  As  human 
desires  have  arisen,  other  occupations  have 
developed  to  satisfy  the  increasing  needs  and 
aspirations,  the  products  of  the  earth  have 
been  assembled  and  changed  by  manufacture 
into  a  thousand  forms,  and  these  departures 
have  resulted  in  more  refined  products,  a  more 
resourceful  civilization,  and  a  more  sensitive 
people. 

14 


Inter-relations  of  City  and  Country    15 

Complex  developments  have  been  taken  out 
of  and  away  from  agriculture,  and  have  left  it 
with  the  simple  and  undifferentiated  products 
and  the  elemental  contact  with  nature.  The 
farmer  is  largely  a  residuary  force  in  society ; 
this  explains  his  conservatism. 

If  we  have  very  highly  developed  persons 
in  the  city,  we  have  very  rugged  persons  in  the 
country.  If  the  sense  of  brotherhood  is  highly 
evolved  in  the  city,  individualism  is  strongly 
expressed  in  the  country.  If  the  world-move- 
ment appeals  to  men  in  the  city,  local  attach- 
ments have  great  power  with  men  in  the 
country.  If  commercial  consolidation  and  or- 
ganization are  characteristic  of.  the  city,  the 
economic  separateness  of  the  man  or  family  is 
highly  marked  in  the  country.  The  more 
marked  progress  of  the  city  is  due  to  its  greater 
number  of  leaders  and  to  its  consolidated  in- 
terests; country  people  are  personally  as  pro- 
gressive as  city  people  of  equal  intellectual 
groups,  but  they  have  not  been  able  to  attract 
as  much  attention  or  perhaps  to  make  as  much 
headway. 


1 6       The  Country-Life  Movement 

Comparisons  of  town  and  country  affairs. 

Civilization  oscillates  between  two  poles. 
[At  the  one  extreme  is  the  so-called  laboring 
class,  and  at  the  other  are  the  syndicated  and 
corporate  and  monopolized  interests.  Both 
these  elements  or  phases  tend  to  go  to  ex- 
tremes. Many  efforts  are  being  made  to  weld 
them  into  some  sort  of  share-earning  or  com- 
monness of  interest,  but  without  very  great 
results.  Between  these  two  poles  is  the  great 
agricultural  class,  which  is  the  natural  balance- 
force  or  the  middle-wheel  of  society.  ^  These 
people  are  steady,  conservative,  abiding  by 
the  law,  and  are  to  a  greater  extent  than  we 
recognize  a  controlling  element  in  our  social 
structure. 

The  man  on  the  farm  has  the  opportunity 
to  found  a  dynasty.  City  properties  may  come 
and  go,  rented  houses  may  be  removed,  stocks 
and  bonds  may  rise  and  fall,  but  the  land  still 
remains ;  and  a  man  can  remain  on  the  land 
and  subsist  with  it  so  long  as  he  knows  how  to 
handle  it  properly.     It  is  largely,  therefore,  a 


Inter-relations  of  City  and  Country    17 

question  of  education  as  to  how  long  any  family 
can  establish  itself  on  a  piece  of  land. 

In  the  accelerating  mobility  of  our  civilization! 
it  is  increasingly  important  that  we  have  many' 
anchoring  places ;   and  these  anchoring  places 
are  the  farms. 

These  two  phases  of  society  produce  marked 
results  in  ways  of  doing  business.  The  great 
centers  invite  combinations,  and,  because  society 
has  not  kept  pace  with  guiding  and  correcting 
measures,  immense  abuses  have  arisen  and  the 
few  have  tended  to  fatten  on  the  many.  There 
are  two  general  modes  of  correcting,  or  at  least 
of  modifying,  these  abuses, —  by  doing  what  we 
can  to  make  men  personally  honest  and  respon- ' 
sible,  and  by  evening  up  society  so  that  all 
men  may  have  something  like  a  natural  oppor- 
tunity. 

The  two  minds. 

There  is  a  town  mind  and  a  country  mind. 
I  do  not  pretend  to  know  what  may  be  the 
psychological  processes,  but  it  is  clear  that  the 
mode  of  approach  to  the  problem    of  life   is 


1 8       The  Country-Life  Movement 

very  different  as  between  the  real  urbanite  and 
the  real  ruralite.  This  factor  is  not  sufficiently 
taken  into  account  by  city  men  who  would 
remove  to  real  farms  and  make  a  living  there. 
It  is  the  cause  of  most  of  the  failure  of  well- 
intentioned  social  workers  to  accomplish  much 
for  country  people. 

All  this  is  singularly  reflected  in  our  litera- 
ture, and  most  of  all,  perhaps,  in  guide-books. 
These  books  —  made  to  meet  the  demand  — 
illustrate  how  completely  the  open  country  has 
been  in  eclipse.  There  is  little  rural  country 
discoverable  in  these  books,  unless  it  is  mere 
"sights"  or  "places," — nothing  of  the  people, 
of  the  lands,  of  the  products,  of  the  markets, 
of  the  country  dorfs,  of  the  way  of  life ;  but 
there  is  surfeit  of  cathedrals,  of  history  of  cities, 
of  seats  of  famous  personages,  of  bridges  and 
streets,  of  galleries  and  works  of  art.  We  be- 
gin to  see  evidences  of  travel  out  into  the  farm- 
ing regions,  part  of  it,  no  doubt,  merely  a 
desire  for  new  experiences  and  diversion,  and 
we  shall  now  look  for  guide-books  that  recog- 
nize the  background  on  which  the  cities  rest. 


/ 

/ 

/ 


Inter-relations  of  City  and  Country    19 

But  all   this  will   call  for  a  new  intention   in 
travel. 

/ 
Will  the  American  farmer  hold  his  own  ? 

What  future  lies  before  the  American  farmer? 
Will  he  hold  something  like  a  position  of  inde- 
pendence and  individualism,  or  will  he  become 
submerged  in  the  social  order,  and  form  only 
an  underlying  stratum  ?  What  ultimate  hope 
is  there  for  a  farmer  as  a  member  of  society  ? 

It  is  strange  that  the  producer  of  the  raw 
material  has  thus  far  in  the  history  of  the  world 
taken  a  subordinate  place  to  the  trader  in  this 
material  and  to  the  fabricator  of  it.  The  trader 
and  fabricator  live  in  centers  that  we  call  cities. 
One  type  of  mind  assembles ;  the  other  type  , 
remains  more  or  less  scattered.  So  there  have 
arisen  in  human  society  two  divergent  streams, 
—  the  collective  and  cooperative,  and  the  iso- 
lated and  individualistic. 

The  fundamental  weakness  in   our   civiliza-  ^ 
tion  is  the  fact  that  the  city  and  the  country 
represent  antagonistic  forces.     Sympathetically, 
they  have  been  and  are   opposed.     The   city 


L 


20       The  Country-Life  Movement 

lives  on  the  country.  It  always  tends  to  de- 
stroy its  province. 

The  city  sits  like  a  parasite,  running  out  its 
roots  into  the  open  country  and  draining  it  of 
its  substance.  The  city  takes  everything  to 
itself  —  materials,  money,  men  —  and  gives 
back  only  what  it  does  not  want ;  it  does  not 
reconstruct  or  even  maintain  its  contributory 
country.  Many  country  places  are  already 
sucked  dry. 

The  future  state  of  the  farmer,  or  real 
countryman,  will  depend  directly  on  the  kind 
of  balance  or  relationship  that  exists  between 
urban  and  rural  forces ;  and  in  the  end,  the 
state  of  the  city  will  rest  on  the  same  basis. 
Whatever  the  city  does  for  the  country,  it 
does  also  for  itself. 

Mankind  has  not  yet  worked  out  this  organic 
relatian._pf  town  and  country.  City  and  coun- 
try are  gradually  coming  together  fraternally, 
but  this  is  due  more  to  acquaintanceship  than 
to  any  underlying  cooperation  between  them 
as  equal  forces  in  society.  Until  such  an 
organic  relationship  exists,  civilization    cannot 


Inter-relations  of  City  and  Country    21 

be  perfected  or  sustained,  however  high  it  may 
rise  in  its  various  parts. 

The  first  two  remedies. 

Of  course  there  are  no  two  or  even  a  dozen 
means  that  can  bring  about  this  fundamental 
adjustment,  but  the  two  most  important  means 
are  at  hand  and  can  be  immediately  put  into 
better  operation. 

The  first  necessity  is  to  place  broadly  trained 
persons  in  the  open  country,  for  all  progress' 
depends  on  the  ability  and  the  outlook  of  men 
and  women. 

The  second  necessity  is  that  city  folk  and 
country  folk  work  together  on  all  great  public 
questions.  Look  over  the  directories  of  big 
undertakings,  the  memberships  of  commissions 
and  councils,  the  committees  that  lay  plans  for 
great  enterprises  affecting  all  the  people,  and 
note  how  few  are  the  names  that  really  represent 
the  ideas  and  affairs  of  the  open  country.  Note 
also  how  many  are  the  names  that  represent 
financial  interests,  as  if  such  interests  should 
have   the   right   of  way  and   should   exert  the 


22       The  Country-Life  Movement 

largest  influence  in  determining  public  policies. 
In  all  enterprises  and  movements  in  which 
social  benefit  is  involved,  the  agricultural  coun- 
try should  be  as  much  represented  as  the  city. 
There  are  men  and  women  enough  out  in  the 
open  country  who  are  qualified  to  serve  on  such 
commissions  and  directories  ;  but  even  if  there 
were  not,  it  would  now  be  our  duty  to  raise 
them  up  by  giving  rural  people  a  chance. 
Rural  talent  has  not  had  adequate  opportunity 
to  express  itself  or  to  make  its  contribution  to 
the  welfare  of  the  world. 

I  know  it  is  said,  in  reply  to  these  remarks, 
that  many  of  the  city  persons  on  such  organiza- 
tions are  country-born,  but  this  does  not  change 
the  point  of  my  contention.  Many  country- 
born  townsmen  are  widely  out  of  knowledge 
of  present  rural  conditions,  even  though  their 
sympathies  are  still  countryward.  It  is  also 
said  that  many  of  them  live  in  country  villages, 
small  cities,  and  in  suburbs ;  but  even  so,  their 
real  relations  may  be  with  town  rather  than 
country,  and  they  may  have  little  of  the  farm- 
country  mind ;  and  the  suburban  mind  is 
really  a  town  mind. 


Inter-relations  of  City  and  Country    23 

Every  broad  public  movement  should  have 
country  people  on  its  board  of  control.  Both 
urban  and  rural  forces  must  shape  our  civiliza- 
tion. 

Movement  from  city  to  country  as  a  remedy. 

Some  persons  seem  to  think  that  the  move- 
ment of  city  men  out  to  the  country  offers  a 
solution  of  country  problems.  It  usually  offers 
only  a  solution  of  a  city  problem,  —  how  a  city 
man  may  find  the  most  enjoyment  for  his  lei- 
sure hours  and  his  vacations.  Much  of  the  ris- 
ing interest  in  country  life  on  the  part  of  cer- 
tain people  is  only  a  demand  for  a  new  form  of 
entertainment.  These  people  strike  the  high 
places  in  the  country,  but  they  may  contribute 
little  or  nothing  to  real  country  welfare.  This 
form  of  entertainment  will  lose  its  novelty,  as 
the  sea-shore  loses  it  for  the  mountains  and  the 
horse  loses  it  for  the  motor-car  or  aeroplane. 
The  farming  of  some  city  men  is  demoralizing 
to  real  country  interests.  I  do  not  look  for 
much  permanent  good  to  come  to  rural  society 
from  the  moving  out  of  some  of  the  types  of 


24      The  Country-Life  Movement 

citv  men  or  from  the  farming  in  which  they 
ordinarily  engage. 

I  am  glad  of  all  movements  to  place  persons 
on  the  land  who  ought  to  go  there,  and  to  di- 
rect country-minded  immigrants  away  from  the 
cities ;  but  we  must  not  expect  too  much  from 
the  process,  and  we  must  distinguish  between 
the  benefit  that  may  accrue  to  these  persons 
themselves  and  the  need  of  reconstruction  in 
the  open  country.  It  is  one  thing  for  a  family 
to  move  to  the  land  in  order  to  raise  its  own 
supplies  and  to  secure  the  benefits  of  country 
life;  it  is  quite  another  thing  to  suppose  that 
an  exodus  from  city  to  country  will  relieve  the 
economic  situation  or  make  any  difference  in 
the  general  cost  of  living,  even  assuming 
that  the  town  folk  would  make  good  farmers. 
And  we  must  be  very  careful  not  to  con- 
fuse suburbanism  and  gardening  with  country 
life. 

To  have  any  continuing  effect  on  the  course 
of  rural  development,  a  person  or  an  agency 
must  become  a  real  part  and  parcel  of  the 
country  life. 


Inter-relations  of  City  and  Country    25 

Sending  the  surplus  population  to  the  country. 

It  is  also  proposed  to  send  to  the  country 
the  pOor-to-do  and  the  dissatisfied  and  the 
unemployed.  This  is  very  doubtful  policy. 
In  the  first  place,  the  presumption  is  that  a 
person  who  does  not  do  well  or  is  much  dis- 
satisfied in  the  town  would  not  do  well  in  the 
country.  In  the  second  place,  the  country  does 
not  need  him.  We  may  need  more  farm 
labor,  as  we  need  more  of  all  kinds  of  labor, 
but  in  the  long  run  this  labor  should  be  pro- 
duced mostly  in  the  country  and  kept  there  by 
a  profitable  and  attractive  rural  life.  The  city 
should  not  be  expected  permanently  to  supply 
it.  The  labor  that  the  city  can  supply  with 
profit  to  country  districts  is  the  very  labor  that 
is  good  enough  for  the  city  to  keep. 

The  relief  of  cities,  if  relief  is  to  be  secured, 
must  lie  in  the  evolution  of  the  entire  situation, 
and  not  merely  in  sending  the  surplus  popula- 
tion into  the  country. 

In  my  opinion,  the  present  back-to-the-farm 
cry  is  for  the  most  part  unscientific  and  un- 
sound, as  a  corrective  of  social  ills.     It  rests 


26      The  Country-Life  Movement 

largely  on  the  assumption  that  one  solution  of 
city  congestion  is  to  send  people  away  from 
itself  to  the  open  country,  and  on  another 
assumption  that  "a  little  farm  well  tilled"  will 
abundantly  support  a  family.  There  is  bound 
to  be  a  strong  reaction  against  much  of  the 
present  agitation.  We  are  to  consider  the  wel- 
fare of  the  open  country  as  well  as  that  of  the 
city  itself.  The  open  country  needs  more  good 
farmers,  whether  they  are  country-bred  or  city- 
bred  ;  but  it  cannot  utilize  or  assimilate  to  any 
great  extent  the  typical  urban-minded  man ; 
and  the  farm  is  not  a  refuge. 

Back-to-the-village. 

It  seems  to  me  that  what  is  really  needed  is 
a  back-to-the-village  movement.  This  should 
be  more  tftan  a  mere  suburban  movement.  The 
suburban  development  enlarges  the  boundaries 
of  the  city.  It  is  perfectly  feasible,  however, 
to  establish  manufacturing  and  other  concen- 
trated enterprises  in  villages  in  many  parts  of 
the  country.  Persons  connected  with  these 
enterprises   could   own  small    pieces   of  land. 


Inter-relations  of  City  and  Country    27 

and  by  working  these  areas  could  add  some- 
thing to  their  means  of  support,  and  also  satisfy 
their  desire  for  a  nature-connection.  In  many 
of  the  villages  there  are  vacant  houses  and 
comparatively  unoccupied  land  in  sufficient 
number  and  amount  to  house  and  establish 
many  enterprises ;  and  there  would  be  room 
for  growth.  If  the  rural  village,  freed  from 
urban  influences,  could  then  become  a  real 
integrating  part  of  the  open  country  surround- 
ing it,  all  parties  ought  to  be  better  served 
than  now,  and  the  social  condition  of  both 
cities  and  country  ought  to  be  improved.  We 
have  over-built  our  cities  at  the  expense  of  the 
hamlets  and  the  towns.  I  look  for  a  great 
development  of  the  village  and  small  com- 
munity in  the  next  generation ;  but  this  in- 
volves a  re-study  of  freight  rates.  », 

Can  a  city  man  make  a  living  on  a  farm  ? 

Yes,  if  he  is  industrious  and  knows  how. 
Many  city  persons  have  made  good  on  the 
land,  but  they  are  the  exceptions,  unless  they 
began  young. 


28      The  Country-Life  Movement 

There  is  the  most  curious  confusion  of  ideas 
on  this  question.  We  say  that  farming  requires 
the  highest  kind  of  knowledge  and  at  the  same 
time  think  that  any  man  may  go  on  a  farm,  no 
matter  how  unsuccessful  he  may  have  been 
elsewhere.  Even  if  he  has  been  successful  as 
a  middleman  or  manufacturer  or  merchant,  it 
does  not  at  all  follow  that  he  would  be  success- 
ful as  a  farmer.  Farming  cannot  be  done  at 
long  range  or  by  proxy  any  more  than  bank- 
ing, or  storekeeping,  or  railroading,  and  espe- 
cially not  by  one  who  does  not  know  how ; 
and  he  cannot  learn  it  out  of  books  and  bul- 
letins. If  a  man  can  run  a  large  factory  without 
first  learning  the  business,  or  a  theater  or  a 
department  store,  then  he  might  be  able  also 
to  run  a  farm,  although  the  running  of  a  farm 
of  equal  investment  would  probably  be  the 
more  difficult  undertaking. 

I  am  glad  to  see  earnest  city  men  go  into 
farming  when  they  are  qualified  to  do  so,  but 
I  warn  my  friends  that  many  good  people  who 
go  out  from  cities  to  farms  with  golden  hopes 
will  be  sadly  disappointed.     Farming  is  a  good 


Inter-relations  of  City  and  Country    29 

business    and  it  is  getting  better,  but   it  is  a  *| 
business  for  farmers ;  and  on  the  farmers  as  a  J 
group  must  rest   the  immediate  responsibility 
of  improving  rural  conditions  in  general. 

The  younger  the  man  when  he  begins  to 
consider  being  a  farmer,  the  greater  will  be  his 
chances  of  success ;  here  the  student  has  the 
great  advantage. 

City  people  must  be  on  their  guard  against 
attractive  land  schemes.  Now  and  then  it  is 
possible  to  pay  for  the  land  and  make  a  living 
out  of  it  at  the  same  time,  but  these  cases  are 
so  few  that  the  intending  purchaser  would 
better  not  make  his  calculations  on  them.  Farm- 
ing is  no  longer  a  poor  man's  business.  It 
requires  capital  to  equip  and  run  a  farm  as  well 
as  to  buy  it,  the  same  as  in  other  business.  It 
is  a  common  fault  of  land  schemes  to  magnify 
the  income,  and  to  minimize  both  the  risks 
and  the  amount  of  needed  capital.  Plans  that 
read  well  may  be  wholly  unsound  or  even  im- 
possible when  translated  into  plain  business 
practice.  The  exploiting  of  exceptional  results 
in  reporter's  English  and  with  charming  pic- 


/^ 


30       The   Country-Life   Movement 

tures  is  having  a  very  dangerous  effect  on  the 
pubHc  mind ;  and  even  some  of  these  results 
may  not  stand  business  analysis. 

What  the  city  may  do. 

It  is  not  incumbent  on  cities,  corporations, 

colleges,  or  other  institutions  to  demonstrate, 

by  going    into  general    practical  farming,  that 

the  farming   business    may  be    made  to    pay : 

thousands   of  farmers  are   demonstrating   this 

every  day. 

(\^'^C^     If  the  city  ever  saves  the  open  country,  it  will 

v^^       /  be  by  working  out  a  real  economic  and  social 

/   coordination  between  city  and  country,  not  by 

the  city  going  into  farming. 

We  need  to  correct  the  abnormal  ur- 
ban domination  in  political  power,  in  con- 
trol of  the  agencies  of  trade,  in  discriminatiory 
practices,  and  in  artificial  stimulation,  and 
at  the  same  time  to  protect  the  evolution 
of  a  new  rural  welfare.  The  agrarian  sit- 
uation in  the  world  is  not  to  be  met 
alone  by  increasing  the  technical  efficiency  of 
farming. 


THE    DECLINE    IN    RURAL    POPU- 
LATION—ABANDONED   FARMS 

The  decline  in  rural  population  grows  out 
of  economic  conditions.  Men  move  to  the 
centers,  where  they  can  make  the  best  living 
for  themselves  and  families.  It  is  difficult, 
however,  for  the  farmer  to  "  pull  up  stakes  " 
and  move.  He  is  tied  to  his  land.  The  re- 
sult is  that  many  men  who  really  could  do 
better  in  the  town  than  on  their  farms  are  still 
remaining  on  the  land.  These  persons  will 
continue  to  remove  to  towns  and  cities  as  they 
are  gradually  forced  off  their  lands ;  or  if  they 
are  not  forced  off,  their  children  will  go,  and 
the  farm  will  eventually  change  hands. 
A  Social  reasons  also  have  their  influence  in 
the  movement  of  rural  populations  to  towns. 
The  social  resources  in  the  country  in  recent 
years  have  been  very  meager,  because  the  social 
attractions  of  the  towns  have  drawn  away  from 

31 


32      The  Country-Life  Movement 

the  activities  of  the  open  country,  and  also 
more  or  less  because  the  population  itself  is 
decreasing  and  does  not  allow,  thereby,  for  so 
close  social  cohesion. 

It  is  not  to  be  expected  that  the  counter- 
movement  from  the  towns  and  cities  to  the 
open  country  will  yet  balance  in  numbers  the 
movement  of  population  from  the  country  to 
the  city. 

It  is  important  that  conditions  be  so  im- 
proved for  the  open  country  that  those  who  are 
born  on  the  farms  and  who  are  farm-minded 
»  shall  feel  that  opportunities  are  at  least  as  good 
for  them  there  as  in  the  city,  and  thereby  pre- 
vent the  exodus  to  the  city  or  to  other  busi- 
ness of  persons  who  really  ought  to  remain  in 
the  rural  regions. 

Significance  of  the  decline. 

It  is  commonly  assumed  that  a  decline  in 
rural  population  in  any  region  is  itself  evidence 
of  a  real  decline  in  agriculture.  This  conclu- 
sion, however,  does  not  at  all  follow.  The 
shift  in  population  as  between  town  and  coun- 


The  Decline  in  Rural  Population     33 

try  is  an  expression  of  very  many  causes.  In 
some  cases  it  may  mean  a  lessening  in  economic 
efficiency  in  the  l-egion,  and  in  some  cases  an 
actual  increase  in  such  efficiency. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  we  have  been 
passing  from  the  rural  to  the  urban  phase  of 
civilization.  The  census  of  1900  showed  ap- 
proximately one-third  of  our  people  on  farms  or 
closely  connected  with  farms,  as  against  some- 
thing like  nine-tenths  a  hundred  years  previous. 
It  is  doubtful  whether  we  have  yet  struck 
bottom,  although  the  rural  exodus  may  have 
gone  too  far  in  some  regions ;  and  we  may 
not  permanently  strike  bottom  for  some  time 
to  come. 

We  think  of  Washington,  Jefferson,  Mon- 
roe, and  other  early  patriots  as  countrymen, 
and  we  are  hkely  to  deplore  the  fact  that  coun- 
trymen no  longer  represent  us  in  high  places. 
The  fact  is  that  "  the  fathers  "  represented  all 
society,  because  society  in  their  day  was  not 
clearly  differentiated  between  city  and  country. 
They  were  at  the  same  time  countrymen  and 
city  men,  but  the   city  was   the  incidental  or 


34      The  Country-Life  Movement 

secondary  interest.  To-day,  the  conditions  are 
reversed.  The  city  has  come  to  be  the  pre- 
ponderating force,  and  the  country  is  largely 
incidental  and  secondary  so  far  as  the  shaping 
of  policies  is  concerned  ;  but  this  does  not  prove 
that  a  greater  ratio  of  country  population  is 
needed.  The  number  of  persons  now  living 
in  the  open  country  is  probably  sufficient,  if 
the  persons  were  all  properly  effective.  The 
real  problem  before  the  American  people  is 
how  to  make  the  country  population  mos 
effective,  not  how  to  increase  this  population ; 
the  increase  will  be  governed  by  the  operation 
of  economic  law. 

The  sorting  of  our  people  has  not  yet  reached 
its  limit  of  approximate  stability.  Many  persons 
who  live  on  the  land  really  are  not  farmers,  but 
are  the  remainders  of  the  rural  phase  of  society. 

A  decHne  in  rural  population  in  any  region 
may  be  expressive  of  the  general  adjustment  as 
between  country  and  city ;  it  may  mean  the 
passing  out  of  active  cultivation  of  large  areas 
of  land  that  ought  to  be  in  forest  or  in  exten- 
sive systems  of  agriculture;  it  may  mean  the 


'1 


The  Decline  in  Rural  Population    35 

moving  out  of  well-to-do  farmers  to  cheaper 
lands,  as  an  expression  of  the  land-hunger  of 
the  American ;  it  may  be  due  in  some  cases  to 
the  retiring  of  well-to-do  persons  from  the  farms 
to  the  town ;  and  other  causes  are  at  work  in 
particular  localities.  The  rural  population  of 
Iowa  is  decreasing,  but  the  agricultural  pro- 
duction and  land  valuation  are  increasing. 

The  lessened  production  of  live-stock,  of 
which  we  have  recently  heard  so  much,  is  prob- 
ably not  due  to  any  great  extent,  if  at  all,  to 
decreasing  rural  population.  It  is  in  part  due 
to  the  shift  in  farming  following  the  passing  of 
the  western  ranges,  and  in  part  to  the  lack  of  a 
free  market,  and  in  part  to  a  changing  adjust- 
ment in  farming  practices.  This  situation  will 
take  care  of  itself  if  the  markets  are  not  ma- 
nipulated or  controlled. 

Many  publicists  are  alarmed  at  the  lessened 
production  of  farm  products  in  comparison  with 
imports,  and  fear  that  the  balance  of  trade  will 
be  seriously  turned  against  us,  with  a  rise  in 
the  rate  of  exchange.  It  is  not  to  be  expected 
that  we  shall  maintain  our  former  rate  of  export 


36      The  Country-Life  Movement 

of  raw  crops,  nor  is  it  desirable  from  the  point 
of  view  of  maintaining  the  fertility  of  our  lands 
that  we  should  do  so;  but  the  maintenance  of 
production  is  now  to  depend  on  farming  every 
acre  better,  in  larger  farms  as  well  as  in  smaller 
farms,  rather  than  on  taking  up  new  acres. 

The  ultimate  importance  of  agriculture  to 
civilization,  in  other  words,  Hes  not  in  the  num- 
ber of  persons  it  supports,  but  in  the  fact  that 
it  must  continue  to  provide  supplies  for  the 
populations  of  the  earth  when  mining  and 
exploitation  are  done,  when  there  are  no  new 
lands,  and  when  we  shall  have  taken  away  all 
the  first  flush  of  the  earth's  bounty.  The  char- 
acter of  the  farm  man,  therefore,  becomes  of 
supreme  importance,  and  all  the  institutions  of 
society  must  lend  themselves  to  this  personal 
problem. 

We  shall  never  again  be  a  rural  people.  We 
want  the  cities  to  grow  ;  and  as  they  grow  they 
should  learn  how  to  manage  themselves.  How 
they  shall  meet  their  questions  of  population  is 
not  my  problem  ;  and  I  have  no  suggestions  to 
make  on  that  subject. 


The  Decline  in  Rural  Population    37 

The  abandoned  farms} 

If  persons  move  from  any  part  of  the  coun- 
try until  there  is  a  marked  absolute  falling  off 
in  population,  it  must  follow  that  certain  lands 
shall  be  left  unused,  or  shall  be  combined  with 
adjacent  lands  into  larger  business  units.  It  is 
no  anomaly  that  there  are  "  abandoned  farms  " 
(they  are  seldom  really  abandoned,  but  more 
or  less  unused),  and  it  is  natural  that  they 
should  be  in  the  remoter,  hillier,  and  poorer 
regions.  So  are  shop  buildings  abandoned  on 
back  streets,  and  likewise  factories  on  lonely 
streams. 

Some  farms  in  the  remote  or  difficult  regions 
are  still  well  utilized,  because  a  skillful  man 
has  met  the  situation ;  others  may  be  very 
nearly  or  quite  disused ;  between  the  two  ex- 
tremes there  is  every  shade  of  condition.  Some 
farms  are  falling  into  disuse  for  one  reason  and 
some  for  another.  In  some  cases,  it  is  because 
the  family  is  merely  broken  up  and  is  moving 

^  Another  discussion  of  this  subject  may  be  found  in 
"  The  State  and  the  Farmer." 


38      The  Country-Life  Movement 

ofF.  In  other  cases,  it  is  because  the  farm  can 
no  longer  make  a  good  living  for  a  man  and 
his  family,  giving  him  the  things  that  a  man  of 
the  twentieth  century  wants.  A  farm  in  the 
hill  region  that  was  large  enough  to  support  a 
man  fifty  or  seventy-five  years  ago,  may  not 
support  him  at  the  present  time  with  all  his 
increase  in  desires  (page  106). 

It  is  no  solution  of  any  question  merely  to 
put  other  families  back  on  disused  farms.  It 
is  worse  than  no  solution  to  place  there  a  more 
ignorant  family  than  was  on  the  place  originally; 
and  yet  there  is  a  movement  all  over  the  coun- 
try to  place  raw  foreigners  on  such  farms  as 
owners  or  renters.  Because  these  farms  are 
cheap,  they  appeal  to  city  people,  and  they  be- 
come temptations  to  real  estate  dealers.  Bargain- 
counter  farms  are  rarely  good  investments. 

What  is  to  be  done  with  these  farms  is,  at 
bottom,  a  plain  economic  question.  If  they 
will  not  pay  in  ordinary  farming,  no  one  should 
be  forced  to  occupy  them.  They  might  be 
well  utilized,  in  many  cases,  for  community  or 
county  forestry  purposes.      Every    county    in 


The  Decline  in  Rural  Population     39 

the  East  that  has  many  remote  and  difficult 
hill  lands  could  probably  profit  by  a  system  of 
public  forestry,  organized  on  a  comprehensive 
state  plan. 

I  have  said  that  farms  are  abandoned  for  all 
kinds  of  reasons.  It  does  not  follow  because  a 
family  has  given  up  a  certain  farm  that  the  place 
has  ever  been  really  tested  on  its  merits  ;  the  man 
may  not  have  been  a  farmer  at  all,  but  only  a . 
resident.  Misfortune  in  the  family,  or  the  lack 
of  children,  may  be  the  reason  for  the  desertion.  ♦ 
So  it  happens  that  some  so-called  abandoned 
farms  are  first-class  properties  to  purchase  as 
ordinary  farms. 

The  best  lands  will  naturally  be  the  first  to 
be  taken  up  by  persons  who  know.  And  the 
value  of  land  for  farming  will  depend  very 
much  on  its  accessibility  and  nearness  to  mar- 
ket. Even  though  it  is  possible  to  raise  two 
hundred  and  fifty  bushels  of  potatoes  on  a  dis- 
tant hilltop,  it  does  not  follow  that  it  is  profit- 
able to  raise  them  there.  Many  persons  who 
are  now  Hving  on  difficult  lands,  would  un- 
doubtedly be  much  better  off  if  they  were  in 


40      The  Country-Life  Movement 

cities  or  towns;  but  as  a  rule,  a  man  cannot 
safely  enter  a  new  business  after  forty  years  of 
age. 

We  must,  of  course,  do  the  best  we  can  to 
help  the  man  who  actually  lives  on  one  of 
these  difficult  farms,  to  enable  him  to  make  the 
very  most  of  his  opportunities.  This  is  being 
done  through  many  agencies.  He  has  been 
taught  in  methods  of  soil  handling,  fertilizing, 
grass-growing,  stock-raising,  drainage,  and  many 
other  particular  features.  But  it  is  also  impor- 
tant that  we  do  not  encourage  others  to  enter 
the  same  condition. 

So  I  have  no  fear  of  the  abandoned  farm, 
although  I  wish  that  we  had  a  fundamental 
treatment  of  the  whole  situation,  —  like  state 
programs,  —  so  that  lands  in  the  process  of 
returning  to  nature  may  be  managed  in  a  large 
and  systematic  way,  that  they  might  contrib- 
ute the  best  results  to  the  community  and 
the  country.  We  now  know  how  to  make 
these  lands  productive,  but  there  is  a  larger 
question  than  this.  Such  lands  —  once  farmed 
and   now  going  fallow  —  may  be  found  from 


The  Decline  in  Rural  Population    41 

California  to  Maine.  In  many  cases  they  are 
not  being  abandoned  rapidly  enough,  and  this 
accounts  for  the  human  tragedy  connected  with 
some  of  the  old  homesteads.  But  they  will  all 
be  used  in  good  time,  and  we  shall  need  them. 
Little  of  the  older  country  is  worn  out. 
Some  of  the  best  land  values  now  lie  in  the  old 
East  and  South.  Movement  to  these  lands 
from  the  Western  lands  is  now  beginning,  and 
this  is  a  sound  tendency,  as  are  most  sponta- 
neous movements  inside  the  farming  business 
itself;  the  railroads  and  real  estate  dealers  may 
be  expected  to  even  up  the  situation. 

The  new  farming. 

Although  the  ratio  of  farmers  to  the  whole 
population  may  still  decrease,  the  actual  num-» 
ber  of  farmers  will  increase.  The  rural  dis- 
tricts will  fill  up.  More  young  men  and 
women  will  remain  on  farms  and  more  persons 
will  go  from  towns  to  farms  as  rapidly  as  the 
business  becomes  as  lucrative  as  other  busi- 
nesses requiring  equal  investment,  risks,  and 
intelligence.     The  open  country  will  probably 


42      The  Country-Life  Movement 

fill  up  mostly  with  the  natural  increase  of  the 
country  population,  and  there  will  be  some  to 
spare  for  the  cities.  We  shall  face  the  question 
of  congestion  of  farm  districts. 

The  general  growth  of  population  will  make 
additional  demands  on  the  farm,  not  only  be- 
cause there  will  be  more  persons  to  supply, 
but  also  because  desires  increase  with  the  in- 
crease of  wealth.  It  may  require  no  more  food 
to  sustain  a  well-to-do  person  than  a  poor- 
to-do  person,  but  as  one  increases  his  income 
he  greatly  extends  the  range  of  his  food  and 
improves  its  quality.     Luxuries  increase. 

But  beyond  his  actual  food,  one's  desires 
increase  directly  with  his  income ;  and,  aside 
from  the  minerals  and  metals,  most  of  the 
material  that  is  used  in  the  arts  and  manufac- 
tures, in  clothing,  shelter,  and  adornment,  is 
raised  from  the  land.  The  human-food  prod- 
ucts do  not  comprise  one-half  the  output  of  the 
land. 

We  have  covered  in  a  way  the  "  easy  "  farm- 
ing regions.  But  in  the  end,  all  the  country 
will  be  needed    for  productive  uses ;    and  the 


The  Decline  in  Rural  Population     43 

best  civilization  will  come  only  when  we  con- 
quer the  difficult  places  as  well  as  utilize  the 
easy  ones.  We  shall  develop  greater  skill  in 
farming  than  we  have  yet  dreamed  of.  The 
raw  and  ragged  open  country  that  we  see  every- 
where from  trolley-lines  and  railway-trains  is 
not  at  all  a  necessary  condition ;  it  is  only  a 
phase  of  a  transition  period  between  the  origi-l 
nal  conquest  of  the  country  and  the  growing'] 
utilization  of  our  resources.  The  more  com- 
pletely we  conquer  and  utilize  it,  the  more 
resourceful  and  hopeful  our  people  should  be. 
Country  life  will  become  more  differentiated 
and  complex.  Speaking  broadly,  we  are  now 
in  the  rough  and  crude  stage  of  our  agricul- 
tural development ;  but  the  situation  will  develop 
only  as  it  pays  and  satisfies  persons  to  live  in 
the  country. 

To  meet  the  economic,  social,  educational, 
religious,  and  other  needs  of  these  great  open 
regions  will  require  the  very  best  efforts  that 
our  people  can  put  forth ;  and  our  institutions 
are  not  now  sufficiently  developed  to  meet  the 
situation  adequately. 


RECLAMATION  IN  RELATION  TO 
COUNTRY  LIFE;  AND  THE  RE- 
SERVE   LANDS 

All  forms  of  reclamation,  by  which  lands 
are  made  available  for  agricultural  use,  pro- 
foundly affect  society  and  institutions;  and 
any  person  who  is  interested  in  rural  civiliza- 
tion must  necessarily,  therefore,  be  interested 
in  these  means  and  their  results.  Because 
reclamation  by  irrigation  has  progressed  farther 
than  other  means,  and  has  become  a  national 
policy,  I  shall  confine  my  remarks  to  it 
chiefly. 

The  best  rural  civilization  will  develop  out 
of  native  rural  conditions  rather  than  be 
imposed  from  without.  Irrigation  makes  a 
rural  condition:  it  provides  the  possibility 
for  a  community  to  develop;  and  it  must, 
therefore,  color  the  entire  life  of  the  com- 
munity. 

44 


Reclamation  and  Country  Life     45 

Irrigation  communities  are  compact.  As  all 
the  people  depend  on  a  single  utility,  so  must 
the  community  life  tend  to  be  solidified  and 
tense.  Probably  no  other  rural  communities 
will  be  so  unified  and  so  intent  on  local 
social  problems.  We  shall  look,  therefore, 
for  a  very  distinct  and  definite  welfare  to 
arise  in  these  communities;  and  they  will  make 
a  peculiar  contribution  to  rural  civilization. 

The  life  of  the  irrigation  community  will 
be  expressed  not  only  in  institutions  of  its 
own,  but  in  a  literature  of  its  own.  Much 
of  the  world's  literature  does  not  have  signifi- 
cance to  country-life  conditions,  and  very  little 
of  it  has  significance  to  an  irrigation  civilization. 
I  look  for  poetry  to  come  directly  out  of  the 
irrigation  ditch  and  to  express  the  outlook 
of  the  people  who  depend  for  their  existence 
on   the  canal  and  the  flood-gate. 

The  interests  of  society  in  the  work. 

The  people  have  made  it  possible  for  irriga- 
tion-reclamation to  be  developed ;  for  whether 
the  work  is  performed  by  government  directly 


46      The  Country-Life  Movement 

or  by  private  enterprise,  it  nevertheless  rests 
mostly  on  national  legislation  ;  and  this  legis- 
lation expresses  the  consent  and  the  interest 
of  society  in  the  work.  All  the  people  have 
not  only  a  right  to  an  interest  in  irrigation- 
reclamation,  but  they  carry  an  obligation  to  be 
interested  in  it,  since  it  reclaims  and  utilizes 
the  fundamental  heritage  of  all  the  people. 
I  take  it  that  society's  interest  in  the  work  is 
of  two  kinds :  to  see  that  the  land  is  properly 
utilized  and  protected ;  to  see  that  persons 
desiring  homes  shall  have  an  opportunity  to 
secure  them.  Society  is  not  interested  in 
speculation  in  land  or  in  mere  exploitation. 

I  hope  that  the  irrigation  people  realize 
their  obligation  to  the  society  that  makes  it 
possible  for  them  to  develop  their  irrigation 
systems.  Not  every  person  in  the  nation 
agrees  to  the  policy  of  national  reclamation, 
but  society  has  given  it  a  trial.  The  people 
in  the  West  are  interested  in  developing  their 
localities  and  their  commonwealths,  and  in 
securing  settlers  to  them  ;  and  with  this  feeling 
we  all  must  sympathize.      The  people  in  the 


Reclamation  and  Country  Life     47 

East  have  a  remoter  interest,  but  it  is  none 
the  less  real.  I  have  no  fear  that  the  irriga- 
tion-settlement of  the  West  will  set  up  dis- 
astrous competition  in  products  with  the  East, 
as  many  Eastern  people  anticipate ;  the  areas 
involved  in  the  new  irrigation  projects  are 
too  small  and  the  development  too  slow  for 
that.  But  there  is  danger  that  the  producing- 
power  of  the  land  may  not  be  safeguarded, 
and  all  the  people.  East  as  well  as  West,  must 
have  concern  for  use  of  Western  land.  The 
very  fact  that  irrigation-farming  is  intensive 
increases  the  danger.  From  an  agricultural 
point  of  view,  the  greatest  weakness  in  this 
farming  is  the  fact  that  the  animal,  or  live- 
stock, does  not  occupy  a  large  place  in  the 
system.  Other  systems  of  maintaining  fertility 
must  be  developed. 

Society  has  a  right  to  ask  that  we  be  careful 
of  our  irrigated  valleys.  They  are  abounding 
in  riches.  It  is  easy  to  harvest  this  wealth, 
by  the  simple  magic  of  water.  We  will  be 
tempted  to  waste  these  riches,  and  the  time 
will  come  quickly  when  we  will  be  conscious 


48       The  Country-Life  Movement 

of  their  decline.  This  seems  remote  now,  but 
the  danger  is  real.  Not  even  the  fertiHty 
of  the  irrigation  waters  will  maintain  the  land 
in  the  face  of  poor  agricultural  practice. 

I  am  not  contending  that  irrigation-farm- 
ing is  proceeding  in  a  wasteful  way,  or  that 
systems  are  not  developing  that  will  protect 
society;  I  am  calling  attention  to  the  danger 
and  to  the  interest  of  all  the  people  in  this 
danger ;  and  I  hope  that  we  may  profit  by  the 
errors  of  all  new  settlements  thus  far  made 
in  the  history  of  the  world. 

It  is  the  flat  valleys  of  the  great  arid 
West  that  will  be  opened  by  irrigation. 
These  valleys  are  small  areas  compared  with 
the  uplands,  the  hills,  and  the  unirrigable 
regions.  Society  is  interested  also  that  we  be 
careful  of  the  uplands  and  hills,  for  in  the 
arid  regions  they  give  small  yield  in  forage 
and  in  timber ;  this  forage  and  timber  must 
be  most  thoughtfully  protected.  When  the 
producing-power  of  the  irrigated  lands  begins 
to  decline,  the  West  cannot  fall  back  on  its  dry 
hills. 


Reclamation  and  Country  Life     49 

We  are  everywhere  in  need  of  better  agri- 
culture, not  only  that  every  agriculturist  may 
do  a  better  business,  but  also  that  agriculture 
may  contribute  its  full  share  to  the  making 
of  a  better  civilization.  Here  and  there,  as 
we  learn  how  to  adapt  ourselves  to  the  order 
of  nature,  we  begin  to  see  a  really  good  agri- 
culture in  the  process  of  making.  A  good 
agriculture  is  one  that  is  self-sustaining  and 
self-perpetuating,  not  only  increasing  its  yields 
year  after  year  from  the  same  land,  but 
leaving  the  land  better  and  richer  at  each 
generation.  This  must  come  to  pass  from 
the  land  itself  and  from  the  animals  and  crops 
that  one  naturally  brings  to  the  land,  and  not 
merely  by  the  addition  of  mined  fertilizing 
materials  brought  from  the  ends  of  the  earth. 
Thus  far  in  history,  it  is  only  when  the  virgin 
fatness  begins  to  be  used  up,  speaking  broadly, 
that  we  put  our  wits  to  work.  Then  the 
rebound  comes.  The  best  agriculture  thus 
far  has  developed  only  after  we  have  struck 
bottom,  and  we  begin  a  constructive  effort 
rather    than    an    exploitative  effort;   and    this 


5©      The  Country-Life  Movement 

comes  in  a  mature  country.  This  is  why  so 
great  part  of  the  European  agriculture  is  so 
much  better  than  our  own,  and  why  in  old 
New  England  such  expert  and  hopeful  farming 
is  now  beginning  to  appear.  The  East  is  in 
the  epoch  of  rebound.  The  East  is  in  the 
process  of  becoming  more  fertile ;  the  West 
is  in  the  process  of  becoming  less  fertile. 
In  Western  North  America,  the  business 
systems  have  been  developed  to  great  perfec- 
tion, and  the  people  are  possessed  of  much 
activity,  and  are  so  far  escaped  from  tradition 
that  they  are  able  to  do  things  in  new  ways 
and  to  work  together.  I  hope  that  this  great 
region  also  will  apply  at  the  outset  all  the  re- 
sources of  business  and  of  science  to  develop 
an  agriculture  that  will  propagate  itself. 

A  broad  reclamation  movement. 

When  all  the  lands  are  taken  that  can  be 
developed  or  reclaimed  by  private  resources, 
there  remain  vast  areas  that  require  the  larger 
powers,  and  perhaps  even  the  larger  funds,  of 
society  (or  the  government)  to  bring  into  util- 


Reclamation  and  Country  Life     51 

ization.  One  class  of  lands  can  be  utilized 
by  means  of  irrigation.  This  form  of  land- 
reclamation  is  much  in  the  public  mind,  and 
great  progress  has  been  made  in  it. 

There  remain,  however,  other  lands  to  be 
reclaimed  by  other  means.  There  is  much 
more  land  to  be  reclaimed  by  the  removal  of 
water  than  by  the  addition  of  water.  There 
are  many  more  acres  to  be  adapted  to  produc- 
tive uses  by  forest  planting  and  conservation 
than  by  irrigation.  There  are  vastly  larger 
areas  waiting  reclamation  by  the  so-called 
"  dry-farming "  (that  is,  by  moisture-saving 
farming  completely  adapted  to  dry  regions). 
And  all  the  land  in  all  the  states  must  be 
reclaimed  by  better  farming.  I  am  making 
these  statements  in  no  disparagement  of  irriga- 
tion, but  in  order  to  indicate  the  relation  of 
irrigation  to  what  should  be  a  recognized 
national  reclamation  movement. 

Supplemental  irrigation. 

Let  me  say  further  that  irrigation  is  prop- 
erly   not   a   practice    of  arid   countries    alone. 


52      The  Country-Life  Movement 

Irrigation  is  for  two  purposes :  to  reclaim 
land  and  make  it  usable ;  to  mitigate  the 
drought  in  rainfall  regions.  As  yet  the  popu- 
lar imagination  runs  only  to  reclamation- 
irrigation.  This  form  of  irrigation  is  properly 
regulated  by  the  federal  government. 

Now  and  then  a  forehanded  farmer  in  the 
humid  region,  growing  high-class  crops,  in- 
stalls an  irrigation  plant  to  carry  him  through 
the  dry  spells.  As  our  agriculture  becomes 
more  developed,  we  shall  greatly  extend  this 
practice.  We  shall  find  that  even  in  humid 
countries  we  cannot  afford  to  lose  the  rainfall 
from  hills  and  in  floods,  and  we  shall  hold  at 
least  some  of  it  against  the  time  of  drought  as 
well  as  for  cities  and  for  power.  We  have  not 
yet  learned  how  to  irrigate  in  humid  regions, 
but  we  certainly  shall  apply  water  as  well  as 
manures  to  supplement  the  usual  agricultural 
practices. 

We  must  learn  to  reckon  with  drought  as  com- 
pletely as  we  reckon  with  winter  or  with  lessening 
productiveness.  We  probably  lose  far  more 
from  dry  spells  than  from  all  the  bugs  and  pests. 


Reclamation  and  Country  Life     53 

We  need  reserves. 

But  even  though  we  should  recognize  a 
national  reclamation  movement  to  include  all 
these  phases  and  others,  it  may  not  be  neces- 
sary or  advisable  in  the  interest  of  all  the 
people,  that  every  last  acre  in  the  national 
domain  be  opened  for  exploitation  or  settle- 
ment in  this  decade  or  even  in  this  century. 
The  nation  may  well  have  untouched  reserves. 
No  one  knows  what  our  necessities  will  be  a 
hundred  years  hence.  Land  that  has  never 
been  despoiled  will  be  immeasurably  more 
valuable  to  society  then  than  now ;  and  society 
holds  the  larger  interest. 

When  the  pressure  of  population  comes,  we 
shall  fall  back  on  our  reserves.  The  rain-belt 
states  will  fall  back  on  their  wet  lands,  their 
uplands,  and  their  hills.  These  hills  are  much 
more  usable  than  those  of  the  arid  and  semi- 
arid  West  can  ever  be.  The  Eastern  and  old 
Southern  states  have  immense  reserves,  even 
though  the  titles  may  be  largely  in  private 
ownership.     New  York  is  still  nearly  half  in 


54      The  Country-Life  Movement 

woods  and  swamps  and  waste,  but  practically- 
all  of  it  is  usable.  New  York  is  an  unde- 
veloped country,  agriculturally.  The  same  is 
true  of  New  England  and  Pennsylvania  and 
great  regions  southwards.  Forests  and  sward 
grow  profusely  to  the  summits  of  the  moun- 
tains and  hills.  Vast  areas  eastward  are  un- 
developed and  unexploited.  Even  the  regions 
of  the  so-called  "  abandoned  farms "  are  yet 
practically  untouched  of  their  potential  wealth. 

I  have  no  regret  that  these  countries  are  still 
unsettled.  There  is  no  need  of  haste.  When 
the  great  arid  West  has  brought  every  one  of 
its  available  acres  into  irrigation,  and  when 
population  increases,  the  Eastern  quarter  of  the 
country  will  take  up  the  slack.  It  is  by  no 
means  inconceivable  that  at  that  time  the  East- 
ern lands,  newly  awakened  from  the  sleep  of 
a  century,  will  be  the  fresh  lands,  and  the 
older  regions  will  again  become  the  new. 

We  should  be  careful  not  to  repeat,  even  on 
a  small  scale,  the  recklessness  and  haste  with 
which  we  have  disposed  of  our  reserves  before 
their  time. 


WHAT  IS  TO  BE  THE  OUTCOME 
OF  OUR  INDUSTRIAL  CIVILIZA- 
TION? 

We  know  that  the  whole  basis  of  civilization 
is  changing.  Industry  of  every  kind  is  taking 
the  place  of  the  older  order.  Its  most  signifi- 
cant note  is  that  it  brings  the  people  of  the 
world  together  in  consultation  and  in  trade. 
We  are  escaping  our  localism,  and  we  look  on 
all  problems  in  their  relation  to  all  mankind. 
Brotherhood  has  become  a  real  power  in  the 
world. 

But  what  does  industry  in  itself,  including  all 
forms  of  land-culture,  offer  as  an  ultimate  goal 
to  civilized  man?  What  are  to  be  the  man's 
ideals  toward  which  he  should  lead  his 
thoughts  ? 

I  am  not  one  of  those  who  consider  a  sordid 
and  commercial  end  to  be  the  necessary  result  of 
industrialism.  \\^e,jnust  develop  the  ideals  in 
an  industrial  civilization,  that  they  may  lead  us 

55 


56      The  Country-Life  Movement 

into  the  highest  personal  endeavor ;  and  every- 
where it  should  be  possible  for  a  man  to  make 
the  most  of  himself.  There  must  be  something 
in  every  business  beyond  the  financial  gain  if  it 
is  to  make  any  final  contribution  to  civilization. 
Finding  this  ultimate,  industrial  society  will 
grow  into  perfect  flower. 

So  far  as  agriculture  is  concerned,  1  see  two 
points  of  high  endeavor  within  the  business, 
lying  beyond  the  making  of  a  good  living,  and 
toward  which  the  coming  countryman  may  set 
his  imagination. 

(i)  The  making  of  a  new  society. 

A  new  social  order  must  be  evolved  in  the 
open  country,  and  every  farmer  of  the  new  time 
must  lend  a  strong  hand  to  produce  it.  We 
have  been  training  our  youth  merely  to  be 
better  farmers  ;  this,  of  course,  is  the  first  thing 
to  do,  but  the  man  is  only  half  trained  when 
this  is  done.  What  to  do  with  the  school,  the 
church,  the  rural  organizations,  the  combina- 
tions of  trade,  the  highways,  the  architecture, 
the  library,  the    beauty  of  the  landscape,  the 


Outcome  of  Industrial  Civilization      ^y 

country  store,  the  rousing  of  a  fine  community 
helpfulness  to  take  the  place  of  the  old  selfish 
individualism,  and  a  hundred  other  activities,  is 
enough  to  fire  the  imagination  and  to  strengthen 
the  arm  of  any  young  man  or  woman. 

The  farmer  is  to  contribute  his  share  to  the 
evolution  of  an  industrial  democracy. 

(2)   The  fighting  edge. 

Theodore  Roosevelt,  with  his  power  to  dis- 
cern essentials,  has  given  us  a  good  rallying 
phrase  in  "  the  fighting  edge."  When  man 
ceases  to  be  a  conqueror,  he  will  lose  his  virility 
and  begin  to  retrograde.  As  localism  gives  way 
to  brotherhood,  militarism  will  pass  out;  but 
this  does  not  mean  that  mankind  will  cease 
to  contend. 

The  best  example  I  have  seen  of  the  develop- 
ment of  determination  and  fine  social  brother- 
hood is  in  the  making  of  the  Panama  Canal. 
The  making  of  the  Canal  is  in  every  sense  a 
conquest.  It  is  a  new  civilization  that  the 
40,000  or  50,000  folk  are  constructing  down 
there,  and  every  man,  whether  he  is  employed 


58       The  Country-Life  Movement 

in  the  commissariat,  the  sanitary  department, 
in  an  office,  on  a  steam  shovel,  or  with  a  con- 
struction gang,  will  tell  you  that  he  is  building 
the  Canal.  All  these  people  are  giving  a  good 
account  of  themselves  because  they  are  doing 
the  work  under  the  flag  and  because  they  are 
contending  with  vast  difficulties. 

We  have  scarcely  begun  even  the  physical 
conquest  of  the  earth.  It  is  not  yet  all  ex- 
plored. The  earth  is  an  island,  and  it  is  only 
two  years  ago  that  we  got  to  one  end  of  it. 
There  are  mountains  to  pierce,  sea-shores  to  re- 
claim, vast  stretches  of  submerged  land  to  drain, 
millions  of  acres  to  irrigate  and  many  more 
millions  to  utilize  by  dry-farming,  rivers  to 
canalize,  the  whole  open  country  to  organize 
and  subdue  by  means  of  local  engineering  work, 
and  a  thousand  other  great  pieces  of  construc- 
tion to  accomplish,  all  calling  for  the  finest 
spirit  of  conquest  and  all  contributing  to  the 
training  of  men  and  women.  There  is  no 
necessity  that  the  race  become  flabby. 

Now,  my  point  is  that  the  prime  high  en-, 
deavor  laid  before  every  farmer  is  to  conquer 


Outcome  of  Industrial  Civilization     59 

his  farm,  and  this  means  contest  with  storm 
and  flood  and  frost,  with  blight  and  bug  and 
pest,  and  with  all  the  other  barriers  that  nature 
has  put  against  the  man  that  tills  the  land. 
We  have  made  a  tremendous  mistake,  in  my 
estimation,  in  trying  to  portray  farming  merely 
as  an  easy  business.  The  sulky-plow  has  been 
too  much  emphasized.  We  are  giving  the 
young  men  more  means  and  tools  by  which 
to  wage  the  contest,  but  the  contest  can  never 
stop.  In  the  nature  of  things,  farming  cannot 
be  an  easy  and  simple  business,  and  this  is  why 
it  has  produced  a  virile  lot  of  men  and  women, 
and  why  it  will  continue  to  do  so.  It  is  a 
question  whether,  if  our  civilization  is  ever 
evened  up,  we  shall  not  look  again  to  the  open 
country  for  strong  working  classes,  for  the 
course  of  much  of  our  city  industrialism  is  to 
make  dependent  men  and  managed  men,  and 
we  need  to  exercise  every  precaution  that  it 
does  not  make  clock-watchers  and  irresponsible 
gang-servers  (page  139). 

Farming  will  attract  folk  with  the  feeling  of 
mastery  in  them,  even  more  in  the  future  than 


6o      The  Country-Life  Movement 

in  the  past,  because  the  hopelessness,  blind  res- 
ignation, and  fatalism  will  be  taken  out  of  it. 
Those  who  are  not  masterful  cannot  conquer  a 
farm.  The  man  weighing  one  hundred  and 
fifty  pounds  who  is  afraid  of  a  San  Jose  bug 
would  better  go  to  the  city,  where  he  can  find 
some  one  to  help  him  fight  his  battles.  The 
farmer  will  learn  how  to  adapt  his  scheme  to 
nature,  and  how  to  conquer  the  things  that  are 
conquerable ;  and  this  should  make  it  worth 
his  while  to  be  a  farmer. 


/ 


THE     FUNDAMENTAL     QUESTION 
IN   AMERICAN    COUNTRY    LIFE 

How  to  make  country  life  what  it  is  capable 
of  becoming  is  the  question  before  us ;  and 
while  we  know  that  the  means  is  not  single  or 
simple,  we  ought  to  be  able  to  pick  out  the 
first  and  most  fundamental  thing  that  needs 
now  to  be  done. 

It  is  perfectly  apparent  that  the  fundamental 
need  is  to  place  effectively  educated  men  and 
women  into  the  open  country.  All  else  de- 
pends on  this.  NcT^formal  means  can  be  of 
any  permanent  avail  until  men  and  women  of 
vision  and  with  trained  minds  are  at  hand  to 
work  out  the  plans  in  an  orderly  way. 

And  yet  it  is  frequently  said  that  the  first 
necessity  is  to  provide  more  income  for  the 
farmer ;  but  this  is  the  result  of  a  process,  not 
the  beginning  of  it.  And  again  it  is  said  that 
organization  is  the  first  necessity,  even  to  make 

6i 


62      The  Country-Life  Movement 

it  possible  to  use  the  education.  If  organiza-  / 
tion  is  necessary  to  make  the  best  use  of  edu-l 
cation,  then  it  assumes  education  as  its  basis. 
Educated  men  will  make  organization  possible 
and  effective,  but  economic  organization  will 
not  insure  education  except  remotely,  as  it  be- 
comes a  means  of  consolidating  an  unorganic 
society. 

But  there  is  no  longer  any  need  to  empha- 
size the  value  of  education.  It  would  now  be 
difficult  to  find  an  American  farmer  who  re- 
quires convincing  on  this  point.  Yet  I  have 
desired  to  say  that  there  is  no  other  agency, 
using  education  in  its  broad  sense,  that  can  by 
any  possibility  be  placed  ahead  of  it. 

Agriculture  in  the  public  schools. 

Agriculture  is  now  a  school  subject.  It  is 
recognized  to  be  such  by  state  syllabi,  in  the 
minds  of  the  people,  and  in  the  minds  of  most 
school  men.  It  is  finding  its  way  into  high- 
schools  and  other  schools  here  and  there. 

There  is  no  longer  much  need  to  propagate 
the   idea   that  agriculture  is  a  school    subject. 


Fundamental  Question    ^        63 

It  is  now  our  part  to  define  the  subject, 
organize  it,  and  actually  to  place  it  in  the 
schools. 

We  must  understand  that  the  introduction 
of  agriculture  into  the  schools  is  not  a  conces- 
sion to  farming  or  to  farmers.  It  is  a  school 
subject  by  right. 

It  is  the  obligation  of  a  school  to  do  more  than 
merely  to  train  the  minds  of  its  students.  The 
school  cannot  escape  its  social  responsibilities ; 
it  carries  these  obligations  from  the  very  fact 
that  it  is  a  school  supported  by  public  money. 

The  schools,  if  they  are  to  be  really  effec- 
tive, must  represent  the  civilization  of  their 
time  and  place.  This  does  not  mean  that  every 
school  is  to  introduce  all  the  subjects  that  engage 
men's  attention,  or  that  are  capable  of  being 
put  into  educational  form ;  it  means  that  it 
must  express  the  main  activities,  progress,  and 
outlook  of  its  people.  Agriculture  is  not  a 
technical  profession  or  merely  an  industry,  but 
a  civilization.  It  is  concerned  not  only  with 
the  production  of  materials,  but  with  the  dis- 
tribution and    selling   of  them,  and  with    the 


64      The  Country-Life  Movement 

making  of  homes  directly  on  the  land  that  pro- 
duces the  material.  There  cannot  be  effective 
homes  without  the  development  of  a  social 
structure. 

Agriculture  therefore  becomes  naturally  a 
part  of  a  public-school  system  when  the  system 
meets  its  obligation.  It  is  introduced  into 
the  schools  for  the  good  of  the  schools  them- 
selves. It  needs  no  apology  and  no  justifica- 
tion; but  it  may  need  explanation  in  order 
that  the  people  may  understand  the  situation. 

If  agriculture  represents  a  civilization,  then 
the  home-making  phase  of  country  life  is  as 
important  as  the  field  farming  phase  (page  93). 
As  is  the  home,  so  is  the  farm;  and  as  is  the 
farm,  so  is  the  home.  Some  of  the  sub- 
jects that  are  usually  included  under  the  cur- 
rent name  of  home  economics,  therefore,  are 
by  right  as  much  a  part  of  school  work  as  any 
other  subjects;  they  will  be  a  part  of  city 
schools  as  much  as  of  country  schools  if  the 
city  schools  meet  their  obligations.  They  are 
not  to  be  introduced  merely  as  concessions  to 
women  or  only  as  a  means  of  satisfying  popular 


Fundamental  Question  65 

demand ;    they  are  not  to  be  tolerated :    they 
are  essential  to  a  public-school  program. 

The  American  contribution. 

The  American  coUege-of-agriculture  phase  of 
education  is  now  well  established.  It  is  the 
most  highly  developed  agricultural  education 
in  the  world.  It  is  founded  on  the  democratic 
principle  that  the  man  who  actually  tills  the 
soil  must  be  reached,  —  an  idea  that  may  not 
obtain  in  other  countries. 

We  are  now  attempting  to  extend  this  demo- 
cratic education  by  means  of  agriculture  to  all 
ages  of  our  people,  and  there  is  promise  that 
we  shall  go  farther  in  this  process  than  any 
people  has  yet  gone ;  and  this  fact,  together 
with  the  absence  of  a  peasantry,  with  the  right 
of  personal  land-holding,  and  with  a  voice  in 
the  affairs  of  government,  should  give  to  the 
people  of  the  United  States  the  best  country 
life  that  has  yet  been  produced. 

America's  contribution  to  the  country-life 
situation  is  a  new  purpose  and  method  in  edu- 
cation, which  is  larger  and  freer  than  anything 


66      The  Country-Life  Movement 

that  has  yet  been  developed  elsewhere,  and 
which  it  is  difficult  for  the  Old  World  fully  to 
comprehend. 

The  founding  of  the  great  line  of  public- 
maintained  colleges  and  experiment  stations 
means  the  application  of  science  to  the  recon- 
struction of  a  society ;  and  it  is  probably  des- 
tined to  be  the  most  extensive  and  important 
application  of  the  scientific  method  to  social 
problems  that  is  now  anywhere  under  way. 

The  dangers  in  the  situation. 

It  is  not  to  extol  our  education  experiment 
that  I  am  making  this  discussion,  but  to  meas- 
ure the  situation  ;  and  I  think  that  there  are 
perils  ahead  of  us,  which  we  should  now  rec- 
ognize. 

There  are  two  grave  dangers  in  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  present  situation :  ( i )  the  danger  that 
we  shall  not  develop  a  harmonious  plan,  and 
thereby  shall  introduce  competition  rather  than 
cooperation  between  agencies ;  (2)  the  danger 
that  the  newer  agencies  will  not  profit  fully  by 
our  long  experience  in  agriculture-teaching. 


Fundamental  Question  67 

An  internal  danger  is  the  giving  of  instruc- 
tion in  colleges  of  agriculture  that  is  not 
founded  on  good  preparation  of  the  student  or 
is  not  organized  on  a  sound  educational  basis. 
Winter-course  and  special  students  may  be 
admitted,  and  extension  work  must  be  done ; 
but  the  first  responsibility  of  a  college  of  agri- 
culture is  to  give  a  good  educational  course: 
it  deals  with  education  rather  than  with  agri- 
culture, and  its  success  in  the  end  will  depend 
on  the  reputation  it  makes  with  school  men. 

There  is  also  danger  that  new  institutions 
will  begin  their  extension  work  in  advance  of 
their  academic  educational  work ;  whereas,  ex- 
tension and  propaganda  can  really  succeed  only 
when  there  is  a  good  background  of  real  accom- 
pHshment  at  home. 

There  is  necessity  that  we  now  reorganize 
much  of  oun  peripatetic ;  teaching.  It  is  no 
longer  sufficient  to  call  persons  together  and 
exhort  them  and  talk  to  them.  We  have  come 
about  to  the  end  of  agricultural  propaganda. 
All  field  and  itinerant  effort  should  have  a 
follow-up  system  with  the  purpose  to  set  every 


68      The  Country-Life  Movement 

man  to  work  on  his  own  place  with  problems 
that  will  test  him.  We  h«.ve  been  testing  soils 
and  crops  and  fertilizers  and  live-stock  and 
machines:  it  is  now  time  to  test  the  man. 

There  is  also  danger  that  we  consolidate  too 
many  rural  schools  in  towns.  If  it  is  true  that 
the  best  country  life  is  developed  when  persons 
live  actually  on  their  farms,  then  we  should  be 
cautious  of  all  movements  that  tend  to  centralize 
their  interests  too  far  from  home,  and  par- 
ticularly to  centralize  them  in  a  town  or  in  a 
village.  ''The  good  things  should  come  to  the 
farm  rather  than  that  the  farm  should  be  obliged 
to  go  to  the  good  things.^ 

The  present  educational  institutions. 

We  must  first  understand  what  our  institu- 
tions of  education  are.  The  extension  of 
agriculture-education  in  institutions  in  the 
United  States  (beyond  the  regular  colleges  of 
agriculture)  is  in  four  lines :  as  a  part  of  the 
regular  public-school  work ;  in  unattached 
schools  of  agriculture  publicly  maintained ;  in 
departments  attached  to  other  colleges  or  uni- 


Fundamenftal  Question  69 

versities  ;  in  private  schools.  The  last  category 
(the  private  schoolsymay  be  eliminated  from 
the  present  discussion. 

The  separate  or '  special -school  method  is 
well  worked  out  in  Wisconsin  (county  plan),  in 
Alabama  and  Georgia  (congressional-district 
plan),  Minnesota  (regional  plan),  with  other 
adaptations  in  Louisiana,  Oklahoma,  Michigan, 
Maryland,  and  elsewhere. 

In  New  York,  the  movement  for  special 
schools  has  taken  an  entirely  new  direction. 
Two  schools  are  connected  with  existing  insti- 
tutions of  higher  learning  of  long-established 
reputation  (being  the  only  schools  of  this  kind, 
state-maintained,  attached  to  liberal  arts  uni- 
versities) and  one  is  unattached;  none  of  them 
has  a  defined  region  or  territory.  These  insti- 
tutions are  established  on  a  more  liberal  finan- 
cial plan  than  the  special  schools  of  other  states, 
standing  somewhat  between  those  schools  and 
the  agricultural  college  type. 

While  much  publicity  has  been  given  to  the 
unattached-school  plan,  the  main  movement  is 
the    adding   of    agriculture-education    to    the 


70      The  Country-Life  Movement 

existing  public-school  systems.  Only  eight  or 
ten  of  the  states  have  entered  into  any  regular 
development  of  separate  or  unattached  schools, 
whereas  in  every  state  the  movement  for  agri- 
culture in  the  public  schools  is  well  under  way. 
The  public  schools  are  of  definite  plan ;  the 
unattached  schools  are  of  several  plans,  or  of 
no  plan  ;  and  in  some  states  an  intermediate 
course  is  developing  by  the  establishing  of 
public  high-schools  (one  to  a  county,  a  con- 
gressional district,  or  other  region)  in  which 
instruction  in  agriculture  and  household  sub- 
jects is  highly  perfected. 

Aside  from  the  foregoing  particular  institu- 
tions, many  general  colleges  and  universities  are 
introducing  agricultural  work  in  order  to  meet 
the  increasing  demand  and  to  keep  up  with 
educational  progress. 

Agricultural  work  is  proceeding  in  nearly  all 
the  states  under  the  auspices  of  the  United  States 
Department  of  Agriculture,  some  of  it  distinctly 
educational  in  character;  and  there  is  agitation 
for  the  passage  of  a  national  bill  to  further  sec- 
ondary or  special  agriculture-education  in  the 
states. 


Fundamental  Question  71 

State  departments  of  agriculture,  the  indis- 
pensable experiment  stations,  veterinary  colleges, 
departments  of  public  instruction,  farmers'  in- 
stitutes, voluntary  societies,  are  all  attacking  the 
country-life  problem  in  their  own  ways  ;  and  the 
powerful  work  of  the  agricultural  press,  although 
not  coming  within  the  scope  of  this  paper,  should 
not  be  overlooked  as  an  educational  agency. 

In  the  meantime,  the  colleges  of  agriculture 
are  growing  rapidly  and  are  approaching  the 
subject  from  every  side,  and  are  assuming 
natural  and  inevitable  leadership. 

The  need  of  plans  to  coordinate  this  educa- 
tional work. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  all  these  agencies  are 
contributing  greatly  to  the  solution  of  the  rural 
problem,  and  there  is  now  probably  very  little 
inharmony  and  little  duplication  of  effort.  In 
the  newness  and  enthusiasm  of  the  effort,  good 
fellowship  holds  the  work  together  in  all  the 
states  or  at  least  keeps  it  from  collision.  But 
the  situation  is  inherently  weak,  because  there 
is  no  plan  or  system,  and  no  united  discussion 


72      The  Country-Life  Movement 

of  the  grounds  on  which  the  work  rests.  I  have 
been  in  correspondence  on  this  question  with 
public  men  in  every  state  in  the  Union,  and  I 
find  a  general  feeling  that  the  present  situation 
is  fraught  with  danger,  and  that  there  is  great 
need  of  organization  or  at  least  of  federation 
of  the  forces  within  each  state ;  and  ultimately 
there  must  be  federation  on  a  national  basis. 
The  work  should  be  cooperative  rather  than 
competitive. 

What  is  to  be  the  policy  of  the  state  in  agricul- 
ture-education ?  Where  is  the  headship  to  lie  ? 
What  are  to  be  the  spheres  of  the  different  in- 
stitutions and  agencies  ?  What  board  or  agency 
is  to  correlate  and  unify  all  the  parts,  to  insure 
a  progressive  and  well-proportioned  program  ? 

Outline  of  a  state  plan. 

A  general  law  should  define  the  state's  policy 
in  education  by  means  of  agriculture  and  in 
the  development  of  rural  affairs,  and  outline 
methods  that  it  proposes  to  follow,  so  that  the 
work  may  be  coordinated  throughout  the  state 
and    that   a   definite    plan  may    be    projected. 


Fundamental  Question  73 

The  duties  of  all  the  classes  of  institutions 
should  be  defined  and  relations  should  be 
established  between  them.  The  people  should 
know  to  what  they  are  committing  themselves. 

This  law  should  not,  of  course,  be  designed 
to  suppress  the  activities  of  any  institution.  It 
might  not  place  any  institution  under  the  dom- 
ination of  any  other  institution.  The  schools, 
colleges,  and  other  institutions  for  the  better- 
ment of  agriculture  should  have  their  own 
autonomy  and  responsibility,  and  they  should 
be  developed  to  the  highest  point  of  efficiency 
in  their  respective  spheres. 

The  fundamental  consideration  in  such  a 
law  should  be  to  develop  the  agriculture  and 
advance  the  country  life  of  the  state  by  organiz- 
ing the  work  of  all  the  agencies  on  a  systematic 
plan,  so  that  an  orderly  development  may  be 
secured.  Such  a  recognized  general  policy 
should  do  much  to  insure  each  institution  in 
the  system  its  proper  state  support. 

It  is  probably  too  much  to  expect  that  a 
fundamental  state  law  could  be  projected  ab- 
stractly.     Laws  are  gradually  built  up  to  meet 


74       The  Country-Life  Movement 

urgent  needs  as  they  arise;  but  if  the  principles 
are  kept  in  mind,  the  making  of  separate  and 
special  laws  might  be  so  guided  as  to  produce 
a  harmonious  result. 

Some  of  the  particular  points  that  I  think 
should  be  desired  in  such  a  law  or  series  of  laws 
are  these: 

1.  It  should  propound  a  policy  in  the  de- 

velopment of  country  life ; 

2.  It  should  name  the  classes  of  institutions 

that  it  proposes  to  utilize  in  the  execu- 
tion of  this  policy ; 

3.  It   should    define    the    functions    of  the 

different  classes  of  institutions  ; 

4.  It  should  state  the  organic  relationships 

that  ought  to  exist  between  them  all ; 

5.  It  might  provide  an  advisory  council  to 

guide  agricultural  education  and  ad- 
vancement in  the  state.  I  think  that 
the  directors  or  responsible  heads  of 
such  institutions  established  for  the 
betterment  of  agriculture  throughout 
the  state  should  constitute  such  con- 
sulting body,  to    which    questions    of 


Fundamental  Question  y^ 

policy  and  procedure  should  be  re- 
ferred and  which,  of  course,  should 
serve  without  remuneration.  This 
council  might  include  also  the  com- 
missioner of  agriculture  and  the  super- 
intendent of  public  instruction.  It 
might  be  well  to  have  one,  two,  or 
three  other  persons  appointed  by  the 
governor.  The  council  would  consti- 
tute a  natural  conference  of  the  parties 
that  are  immediately  responsible  for 
this  work,  without  taking  the  manage- 
ment of  any  institution  out  of  the 
hands  of  an  existing  board.  The  idea 
of  such  a  body  is  to  further  the  coor- 
dination by  conference,  rather  than  to 
have  plenary  power.  Its  moral  influ- 
ence ought  to  be  all  the  greater  be- 
cause of  its  lack  of  conferred  power. 

yi  state  extension  program. 

As  soon  as  a  state  has  produced  strong 
institutions  for  research  and  education  in  agri- 
culture, it  will  need  to  provide  an  agency  for 


jd      The  Country-Life  Movement 

utilizing  the  results.  A  state  extension  program, 
on  a  coordinating  plan  between  all  the  institu- 
tions but  proceeding  from  one  educational 
center,  and  which  all  the  institutions  would 
have  a  right  to  use  for  the  spread  of  their  work 
among  the  people,  could  accomplish  vast 
benefits.  It  should  comprise  institutes,  utilize 
the  state  system  of  fairs  educationally,  afford  an 
organ  for  the  making  of  agricultural  surveys 
and  demonstrations,  spread  an  educational  prop- 
aganda on  the  agricultural  law,  collect  and  collate 
the  experience  of  the  farmers  of  the  state.  It 
could  assort  and  apply  the  information  that  the 
state,  at  great  expense,  accumulates  through  its 
various  separate  agencies.  It  could  utilize  the 
students,  whom  the  state  provides  with  free 
tuition.  The  germ  of  such  an  enterprise  al- 
ready exists  in  most  of  the  states. 

Special  local  schools  for  agriculture} 

I  am  committed  to  the  idea  that  there  should 
be  strong  local  centers  of  interest  in  rural  com- 

1  See  "The  State  and  the  Farmer,"  p.  150;  "The 
Training  of  Farmers,"  p.  167;  "Cyclopedia  of  American 
Agriculture,"  IV,  p.  474. 


Fundamental  Question  77 

munities,  for  thereby  we  develop  local  pride 
and  incentive.  There  are  several  ways,  on  the 
educational  side,  of  developing  local  institu- 
tions and  interest. 

The  first  way  is  to  make  it  possible  and 
practicable  for  the  existing  public  schools  to 
introduce  agriculture  and  domestic  economy. 
I  suggest  that  many  or  most  localities  would 
do  better  to  develop  the  country-life  work  in 
the  existing  schools  than  to  ask  the  legislature 
for  a  separate  special  school.  We  have  only 
begun  to  understand  what  such  redirected  and 
expanded  schools  may  accomplish. 

Another  means  of  securing  local  knowledge 
and  developing  local  interest  is  by  the  estab- 
lishing of  demonstration  farms  and  field-labo- 
ratories. It  is  doubtful  whether  a  permanent 
demonstration  farm  in  a  community  is  de- 
sirable ;  in  general,  the  demonstration  may  be 
temporary,  depending  on  the  presence  in  the 
community  of  some  special  difficulty.  In  some 
circumstances,  the  enterprise  may  amount  to 
a  local  testing  station.  Enterprises  of  this  sort 
are  bound  to  take  on  great  importance  in  the 
redirection  of  country  life. 


78      The  Country-Life  Movement 

Local  societies  and  organizations  may  be  en- 
couraged to  take  up  educational  and  experiment 
work. 

Departments  of  agriculture  will  probably  be 
added  by  colleges  or  other  educational  institu- 
tions, and  these  will  serve  as  local  centers  at 
the  same  time  that  they  reach  the  larger  field. 

Again,  a  winter  school  or  short-course  of, 
say,  a  month's  or  two  months'  duration  may 
be  held  in  different  parts  of  the  state.  The 
localities  should  cooperate  in  the  expenses, 
thereby  becoming  partakers  in  the  enterprise. 

Eventually  there  should  be  an  agricultural 
agent  resident  in  every  county,  and  perhaps 
even  for  smaller  regions,  whose  office  should 
be  to  give  advice,  to  keep  track  of  animal  and 
plant  diseases  and  pests  and  secure  the  services 
of  experts  in  their  control,  to  organize  confer- 
ences, winter-courses,  and  the  like,  and  other- 
wise to  be  to  the  agricultural  affairs  what  the 
pastor  is  to  religious  affairs  and  the  teacher  to 
educational  affairs.  (See  "  The  Training  of 
Farmers,"  p.  257,) 

Finally,  we    may  ask  the    state   to   place  a 


Fundamental  Question  79 

special  school  of  agriculture  in  the  locality,  but 
only  after  it  is  clear  that  other  means  cannot 
produce  the  desired  results.  An  unattached 
school  of  agriculture  is  not  an  easy  thing  to 
administer  successfully,  even  at  the  best ;  and 
the  difficulty  would  be  all  the  greater  if  its  care 
were  to  be  confined  to  local  boards,  which  would 
probably  have  small  understanding  of  the  pe- 
culiar educational  requirements.  It  is  probable 
that  a  state  may  wisely  establish  a  very  few 
special  schools,  but  an  educational  program 
needs  first  to  be  worked  out,  a  competent  sys- 
tem of  control  must  be  found,  and  the  people 
should  know  in  advance  what  is  involved. 
It  is  not  enough  merely  that  a  locality  desires 
a  school :  the  larger  question  is  the  state's  in- 
terest. In  all  local  enterprises  of  this  kind  in 
which  state  aid  is  asked  for,  it  ought  to  be 
understood  that  the  locality  itself  is  to  cooper- 
ate in  the  securing  of  equipment  and  funds. 

The  lessons  of  experience. 

The    demand    for    agriculture-education    is 
now    widespread ;    the    subject    is    becoming 


8o      The  Country-Life  Movement 

"popular."  All  kinds  of  plans  are  being 
tried  or  discussed. 

Persons  do  not  seem  to  realize  that  we  have 
had  about  one  hundred  years  of  experience  in 
the  United  States  in  agriculture-education,  and 
that  this  experience  ought  to  point  the  way  to 
success,  or  at  least  to  the  avoiding  of  serious 
errors.  The  agricultural  colleges  have  come 
up  through  a  long  and  difficult  route,  and  their 
present  success  is  not  accidental,  nor  is  it  easy 
to  duplicate  or  imitate.  First  and  last,  about 
every  conceivable  plan  has  been  tried  by  them, 
or  by  others  in  their  time  or  preceding  them ; 
and  this  experience  ought  to  be  utilized  by  the 
other  institutions  that  are  now  being  projected 
in  all  parts  of  the  country. 

Plans  that  certainly  cannot  succeed  are  now 
being  projected.  The  projectors  seem  to  pro- 
ceed on  the  idea  that  it  requires  no  background 
of  experience  to  enable  an  institution  to  teach 
agriculture,  whereas  agriculture-education  is  the 
most  difficult  and  also  the  most  expensive  of 
all  education  yet  undertaken. 

To  teach  agriculture  merely  by  giving  a  new 


Fundamental  Question  8i 

direction  or  vocabulary  to  botany,  chemistry, 
geology,  physics,  and  the  like  is  not  to  teach 
agriculture  at  all,  although  it  may  greatly  im- 
prove these  subjects  themselves.  To  put  a 
school  of  agriculture  in  the  hands  of  some  good 
science-teacher  in  a  general  college  faculty  with 
the  idea  that  he  can  cover  the  agricultural 
work  and  at  the  same  time  keep  up  his  own 
department,  is  wholly  ineffective  (except  tem- 
porarily) and  out  of  character  with  the  demands 
of  the  twentieth  century  (but  in  high-schools 
a  good  science  teacher  may  handle  the  work, 
or  an  agriculture  teacher  may  carry  the  science). 
To  suppose  that  "  agriculture "  is  one  subject 
for  a  college  course,  to  be  sufficiently  repre- 
sented by  a  "chair,"  is  to  miss  the  point  of 
modern  progress.  To  give  only  laboratory 
and  recitation  courses  may  be  better  than 
nothing,  but  land-teaching,  either  as  a  part 
of  the  institution  or  on  adjacent  farms,  must 
be  incorporated  with  the  customary  school  work 
if  the  best  results  are  to  be  secured.  To  make 
a  school  farm  pay  for  itself  and  for  the  school  is 
impossible  unless  the  school  is  a  very  poor  or 


82      The  Country-Life  Movement 

exceedingly  small  one ;  and  yet  this  old  fallacy 
is  alive  at  the  present  day.  To  have  a  distant 
farm  to  visit  and  look  at,  in  order  to  "apply  "  the 
"  teachings  "  of  chemistry,  botany,  and  the  like, 
falls  far  short  of  real  agriculture  instruction. 
To  develop  a  "  model  farm  "  that  shall  be  a 
pattern  to  the  multitude  in  exact  farming  is 
an  exploded  notion :  there  are  many  farmers' 
farms  that  are  better  adapted  to  such  purpose 
(the  demonstration  farm  is  the  modern  adap- 
tation of  the  idea,  and  it  is  educationally 
sound). 

To  teach  agriculture  of  college  grade  requires 
not  only  persons  who  know  the  subject,  but  an 
organization  well  informed  on  the  educational 
administration  that  is  required.  There  must 
be  a  body  of  experience  in  this  line  of  work 
behind  any  teaching  on  a  college  plane  that 
shall  be  really  useful ;  when  this  body  of  ex- 
perience does  not  exist,  the  work  must  neces- 
sarily grow  slowly  and  be  under  the  most 
expert  direction.  The  presumption  is  still 
against  successful  agriculture  work  in  the  lit- 
erary and  liberal  arts  institutions,  because  such 


Fundamental  Question  83 

teaching  demands  a  point  of  view  on  education 
that  the  men  in  these  institutions  are  likely 
not  to  possess.  Agriculture  cannot  be  intro- 
duced in  the  same  way  that  a  department  or 
chair  of  history  or  mathematics  can  be  or- 
ganized; it  requires  a  different  outlook  on 
educational  procedure,  a  different  order  of 
equipment  and  of  activities,  and  its  own  type 
of  administration. 

I  am  much  afraid  that  some  of  the  newer 
unattached  institutions,  in  their  eagerness  to 
make  departures  and  to  be  self-sufficient,  will 
not  profit  by  our  long  development,  and 
that  the  secondary  schools  and  others  may 
make  many  of  the  mistakes  that  the  regular 
colleges  of  agriculture  long  ago  have  made. 
The  presumption  is  against  any  school  that 
expects  to  develop  merely  a  local  enterprise, 
without  reference  to  other  schools  or  to  ex- 
perience. 

I  am  sure  we  all  want  to  encourage  the 
introduction  of  agriculture  into  all  educational 
institutions,  but  we  should  not  be  misled 
merely  by  the  word  "agriculture" ;  and  in  the 


84      The  Country-Life  Movement 

interest  of  good  worV-  we  should  be  careful 
not  to  encourage  1  .  terprise  o(  this  kind 
until  convinced  tha.  it  has  been  ',,ell  studied 
and  that  it  will  be  administered  in  the  interest 
of  rural  progress.  » 


WOMAN'S  CONTRIBUTION  TO  THE 
COUNTRY-LIFE  MOVEMENT 

On  the  women  depend  to  a  greater  degree 
than  we  realize  the  nature  and  extent  of  the 
movement  for  a  better  country  life,  wholly 
aside  from  their  personal  influence  as  mem- 
bers of  families.  Farming  is  a  co-partnership 
business.  It  is  a  partnership  between  a  man 
and  a  woman.  There  is  no  other  great  series 
of  occupations  in  which  such  co-partnership 
is  so  essential  to  success.  The  home  is  on 
the  farm,  and  a  part  of  it.  The  number  of 
middle-aged  unmarried  men  living  on  farms 
is  very  small.  It  is  quite  impossible  to  live 
on  a  farm  and  to  run  it  advantageously  with- 
out family  relation. 

It  follows,  then,  that  if  the  farming  business 
is  to  contribute  to  the  redirection  of  country 
life,  the  woman  has  responsibilities  as  well  as 
the  man.  As  the  strength  of  a  chain  is  deter- 
mined by  its  weakest  link,  so  will  the  progress 

85 


86      The  Country-1     '^  Movement 

of  rural  civilization  be  d  mined  by  the  weak- 
ness of  the  farm  as  an  c  i'  nomic  unit,  or  by 
the  weakness  of  the  homt  s  a  domestic  and 
social  unit. 

Now,  the  farmer  himself  cannot  have  great 
influence  in  redirecting  the  Tairs  of  his  com- 
munity until  he  is  first  mr  iter  of  his  own  ' 
problem,  —  that  is,  until  n  i  is  a  first-class 
farmer.  In  the  same  way,  woman  cannot 
expect  to  have  much  influ  nee  in  furthering 
the  affairs  of  her  rural  con;  nunity  until  she 
nalso  is  master  of  her  own  problem,  and  her 
'  'problem  is  primarily  the  home-making  part  of 
the  farm.  In  the  mastering  of  his  or  her 
own  problem,  the  farmer  or  his  ■  ife  may  also 
contribute  directly  to  the  progress  of  the 
community.  Every  advance  in  the  manage- 
ment of  the  household  contributes  to  the  gen-  - 
eral  welfare  :  it  sets  new  ideas  under  vvay. 

If  the  farming  business  must  in  general  be 
reorganized,  so  also  must  the  householding 
part  of  it  be  reorganized.  The  solution  of  the 
farm-labor  problem,  for  example,  lies  not  alone 
merely  in  securing  more  farm  "  hands,"  but  in 


/ 


Woman*§^^ijontribution  87 

so  directing  and  sh:;  y;^  the  business  that  less 
farm  hands  will  ^Qri^ieeded  to  secure  a  given 
economic  result  ;^:a  also  the  solution  of  the 
household-labor  roblem  is  not  merely  the 
securing  of  more ,  household  help,  but  the  sim- 
plification of  hou^:;  holding  itself. 

So  far  as  posgj^;.)le,  the  labor  that  is  neces- 
sary to  do  the^^^/ork  of  the  open  country, 
whether  in-door^  or  out-doors,  should  be  resi- 
dent labor.  Th^Jabor  difficulty  increases  with 
reduction  in  thg^jsize  of  the  family.  Families 
of  moderate  siz^  develop  responsibility,  and 
cooperation  is  forced  on  all  members  of  it, 
with  marked  effect  on  character.  The  single 
child  is  lik^y  to  develop  selfishness  rather 
than  cooperation  and  sense  of  responsibility. 
To  a  large  extent,  the  responsibility  of  the 
househol4  should  rest  on  the  girls  of  the 
family ;  a^d  ,all  children,  whether  boys  or  girls, 
should  be  brought  up  in  the  home  in  habits 
of  industry. 

It  is  fairly  possible  by  means  of  simplifica- 
tion of  householding  and  by  a  cooperative 
industry  amongst  all  members  of  the  family. 


88       The  Country-Life  Movement 

so  to  reduce  the  burden  of  the  farm  wife  that 
she  may  have  time  and  strength  to  give  to  the 
vital  affairs  of  the  community. 

The  afairs  of  the  household. 

It  is  essential  that  we  simplify  our  ideals  in 
cooking,  in  ornament,  in  apparel,  and  in  fur- 
nishing ;  that  we  construct  more  convenient 
and  workable  residences ;  that  we  employ 
labor-saving  devices  for  the  house  as  well  as 
for  the  barns  and  the  fields. 

We  are  so  accustomed  to  the  ordinary 
modes  of  living  that  we  scarcely  realize  what 
amount  of  time  and  strength  might  be  saved 
by  a  simpHfied  table  and.  by  more  thoughtful 
methods  of  preparing  food.  In  respect  to 
houses,  it  should  be  remembered  that  the  pres- 
ent farm  dwellings  are  getting  old.  A  good 
part  of  the  farm  houses  must  soon  be  either 
rebuilt  or  remodeled.  The  first  consideration 
is  so  to  build  or  remodel  them  that  steps  may 
be  saved  to  the  housewife.  We  have  not 
thought,  in  the  past,  that  a  woman's  steps  cost 
time    and    energy.     Within    twenty    years    all 


Woman's  Contribution  89 

first-class  farm  houses  will  have  running  water, 
both  into  the  house  and  out  of  the  house. 

It  is  rather  strange  that  in  our  discussions 
of  the  farm-labor  problem,  we  do  not  realize 
that  a  gasoline  engine  or  a  water  engine  may. 
save  the  labor  of  a  man.  Farmers  are  putting 
power  into  their  barns.  They  should  also  put 
power  into  the  house.  This  may  be  accom- 
plished by  means  of  a  small  movable  engine 
that  can  be  used  either  in  the  house  or  barn, 
or  else  by  installing  an  engine  in  a  small  build- 
ing betwixt  the  house  and  the  barn,  so  that  it 
can  be  connected  either  way.  This  can  be 
used  to  lighten  much  household  labor,  as 
pumping  of  water,  meat-chopping,  laundering, 
dish-washing,  vacuum-cleaning,  and  the  like. 

Eventually,  there  must  be  some  form  of 
community  cooperation  in  the  country  to  save 
household  labor.  Already  the  care  of  milk 
has  been  taken  from  great  numbers  of  farm 
homes  by  the  neighborhood  creamery,  or  at  least 
by  the  building  of  a  milk-house  in  which  the 
men  by  the  use  of  machinery  perform  labor 
that  was  once  done  by  the  housewife.     When- 


90      The  Country-Life  Movement 

ever  there  Is  a  cooperative  creamery,  there 
may  also  be  other  cooperative  attachments,  as 
a  laundry,  or  other  appliances.  It  will  be 
more  difficult  to  bring  about  cooperation  in 
these  regards  in  country  districts  than  in  the 
city,  but  with  the  coming  of  good  roads,  tele- 
phones, and  better  vehicles,  it  will  be  con- 
stantly more  easy  to  accomplish. 

The  affairs  of  the  community. 

I  have  said  that  it  is  important  that  the 
;  country  woman  have  strength  and  time  to  en- 
gage in  the  vital  affairs  of  the  community. 
I  am  thinking  of  the  public  sentiment  that 
women  can  make  on  any  question  that  they 
care  to  discuss  thoroughly  and  collectively, 
whether  this  sentiment  is  for  better  orcharding, 
better  fowls,  better  roads,  extending  of  tele- 
phones, improving  the  schoolhouse  or  church 
or  library.  It  is  needful  that  women  in  the 
country  come  together  to  discuss  woman's 
work,  and  also  to  form  intelligent  opinions  on 
farming  questions  in  general. 

The  tendency  of  all  "  sociables  "  in  country 


Woman's  Contribution  91 

and  town  is  to  bring  persons  together  to  eat, 
to  gossip,  and  to  be  entertained.  We  need  to 
redirect  all  these  meetings,  and  to  devote  at 
least  a  part  of  every  such  meeting  to  some  real 
and  serious  work  which  it  is  worth  while  for 
busy  and  intelligent  persons  to  undertake. 

Every  organization  of  women  should  en- 
deavor to  extend  its  branches  and  its  influence 
into  the  open  country  as  well  as  into  the  cities 
and  towns.  Every  public  movement  now  has 
responsibility  to  country-life  questions  as  well 
as  to  town  questions. 

I  think  it  important  that  there  be  some 
means  and  reason  for  every  farm  woman  going 
away  from  home  at  least  once  a  week,  and  this 
wholly  aside  from  going  to  town  to  trade. 
There  should  be  some  place  where  the  women 
may  come  together  on  a  different  basis  from 
that  of  the  ordinary  daily  routine  and  the  usual 
buying  and  selling.  I  do  not  know  where  this 
social  center  should  develop,  and  in  an  atmos- 
phere that  is  not  conducive  to  gossip.  In  some 
neighborhoods  it  might  focalize  in  the  church 
parlor.      The  center  should  be  permanent,  if 


92      The  Country-Life  Movement 

possible.  It  should  be  a  place  to  which  any 
woman  in  a  community  has  a  right  to  go.  An 
ideal  place  for  such  a  center  would  be  the  rural 
Hbrary,  and  I  hope  that  such  libraries  may  arise 
in  every  country  community,  not  only  that  they 
may  supply  books  but  that  they  may  help  pro- 
vide a  meeting-place  on  semi-social  lines.  I 
think  that  if  I  were  a  woman  in  charge  of  a 
rural  library,  I  should  never  be  satisfied  with  my 
work  until  I  had  got  every  woman  in  the  com- 
munity in  the  habit  of  coming  to  the  library 
once  every  week. 

The  woman's  outlook. 

The  woman  needs  very  much  to  have  the 
opportunity  to  broaden  her  horizon.  The 
farmer  has  lived  on  his  farm ;  he  is  now  ac- 
quiring a  world  outlook.  The  woman  has 
lived  in  her  house ;  she  also  is  acquiring  a 
world  outlook.  As  the  house  has  been  smaller 
and  more  confining  than  the  farm,  it  has  fol- 
lowed that  woman's  outlook  has  been  smaller 
than  man's. 

I  think  it  is  necessary  also  that  the  woman 


Woman's  Contribution  93 

of  the  farm,  as  well  as  the  man,  have  a  real 
anchor  in  her  nature  environment.  It  is  as 
necessary  to  the  woman  as  to  the  man  that  her 
mind  be  open  to  the  facts,  phenomena,  and 
objects  that  are  everywhere  about  her,  as  the 
winds  and  weather,  the  plants  and  birds,  the 
fields  and  streams  and  woods.  It  is  one  of 
the  best  resources  in  life  to  be  able  to  distin- 
guish the  songs  and  voices  of  the  common 
fields,  and  it  should  be  a  part  of  the  education  of 
every  person,  and  particularly  of  every  country 
person,  to  have  this  respite.  The  making  of 
a  garden  is  much  more  than  the  growing  of  the 
radishes  and  strawberries  and  petunias.  It  is 
the  experience  in  the  out-of-doors,  the  contact 
with  realities,  the  personal  joy  of  seeing  things 
germinate  and  grow  and  reproduce  their  kind. 

The  means  of  education. 

If  country  women  are  to  develop  a  conscious 
sense  of  responsibility  in  country-life  better- 
ment, education  facilities  must  be  afforded 
them.  The  schools  must  recognize  home- 
making   subjects    equally  with    other  subjects. 


94      The  Country-Life  Movement 

What  becomes  a  part  of  the  school  eventually 
becomes  a  part  of  the  life  of  the  people 
of  the  region. 

The  leadership  in  such  subjects  is  now  being 
taken  by  the  colleges  of  agriculture.  This  is 
not  because  domestic  subjects  belong  in  a  col- 
lege of  agriculture  more  than  elsewhere,  but 
only  that  these  colleges  see  the  problem,  and 
most  general  colleges  or  universities  have  not 
seen  it.  The  college  of  agriculture,  if  it  is 
highly  developed,  represents  a  civilization 
rather  than  a  series  of  subjects;  and  it  cannot 
omit  the  home-making  phase  if  it  meets  its 
obligation  to  the  society  that  it  represents 
(page  64). 

If  the  customary  subjects  in  a  college  of 
agriculture  are  organized  and  designed  to  train 
a  man  for  efficiency  in  country  life  and  to  de- 
velop his  outlook,  so  also  is  a  department  of 
home  economics  to  train  a  woman  for  efficiency 
and  to  develop  her  outlook  to  life. 

Home  economics  is  not  one  "  department " 
or  subject,  in  the  sense  in  which  dairying  or 
entomology  or  plant-breeding  is  a  department. 


Woman's  Contribution  95 

It  is  not  a  single  specialty.  It  stands  for  the 
whole  round  of  woman's  work  and  place.  Many 
technical  or  educational  departments  will  grow 
out  of  it  as  time  goes  on.  That  is,  it  will  be 
broken  up  into  its  integral  parts,  and  it  will 
then  cease  to  be  an  administrative  department 
of  an  educational  institution  ;  and  very  likely 
we  shall  lose  the  terms  "  home  economics," 
"  household  economics,"  "  domestic  science," 
and  the  rest. 

I  would  not  limit  the  entrance  of  women 
into  any  courses  in  a  college  of  agriculture ;  on 
the  contrary,  I  want  all  courses  open  to  them 
freely  and  on  equal  terms  with  men  ;  but  the 
subjects  that  are  arranged  under  the  general 
head  of  home  economics  are  her  special  field 
and  sphere.  On  the  other  hand,  I  do  not 
want  to  limit  the  attendance  of  men  in  courses 
of  home  economics ;  in  fact,  I  think  it  will  be 
found  that  an  increasing  number  of  men  desire 
to  take  these  subjects  as  the  work  develops, 
and  this  will  be  best  for  society  in  general. 

Furthermore,  I  do  not  conceive  it  to  be 
essential  that  all   teachers   in   home    economic 


96      The  Country-Life  Movement 

subjects  shall  be  women  ;  nor,  on  the  other 
hand,  do  I  think  it  is  essential  that  all  teachers 
in  the  other  series  of  departments  shall  be  men. 
The  person  who  is  best  qualified  to  teach  the 
subject  should  be  the  one  who  teaches  it, 
whether  man  or  woman. 

As  rapidly  as  colleges  and  universities  come 
to  represent  society  and  to  develop  in  all 
students  a  philosophy  of  life,  the  home-making 
units  will  of  necessity  take  their  place  with 
other  units. 


HOW  SHALL  WE  SECURE  COM- 
MUNITY LIFE  IN  THE  OPEN 
COUNTRY? 

It  is  generally  agreed  that  one  of  the  greatest » 
insufficiencies  in  country  life  is  its  lack  of  or- 
ganization or  cohesion,  both  in   a   social   andl 
economic  way.     Country  people  are  separated! 
both  because    of  the    distances   between    their/ 
properties,  and    also   because   they    own    their/ 
land  and  are  largely  confined  to  its  sphere  of 
activities.     There  is  a  general  absence  of  such 
common  feeling    as  would  cause  them    to  act 
together  unitedly  and  quickly  on  questions  that 
concern  the  whole  community,  or  on  matters 
of  public  moment. 

This  lack  of  united  action  cannot  be  over- 
come by  any  single  or  brief  process,  but  as 
one  result  of  a  general  redirection  of  rural  effort 
and  the  stimulating  of  a  new  or  different  point 
of  view  toward  life.  It  will  come  as  a  result 
H     ^  97 


liV 


98      The  Country-Life  Movement 

of  a  quickened  agricultural  life  rather  than  as  an 
effect  of  any  direct  plan  or  propaganda.  When 
.^  the  rural  social  sense  is  thoroughly  established, 
we  shall  be  in  a  new  epoch  of  rural  civilization. 

It  is  now  the  habit  to  say  that  this  desired 
rural  life  must  be  cooperative.  A  society  that 
is  fully  cooperative  in  all  ways  is  one  from 
which  the  present  basis  of  competition  is  elimi- 
nated. I  think  that  no  one  intends,  however, 
in  the  common  discussion  of  cooperation  to 
take  sides  on  the  theoretical  question  as  to 
whether  society  in  the  end  will  be  cooperative 
or  competitive ;  these  persons  only  mean  that 
cooperative  association  is  often  the  best  means 
to  secure  a  given  result  and  that  such  associa- 
tion may  exert  great  educational  influence  on  the 
cooperators. 

Theoretically,  the  cooperative  organization 
of  society  may  be  the  better.  Practically,  a  capi- 
talistic organization  may  be  better :  it  quickly 
recognizes  merit  and  leadership ;  but  if  it  is 
better,  it  is  so  only  when  it  is  very  carefully 
safeguarded. 

It  cannot  be  contended    that  a  cooperative 


i 


Community  Life  99 

organization  is  correct  because  the  majority 
rules.  Majorities  show  only  what  the  people 
want,  not  necessarily  what  is  best.  Minorities 
are  much  more  likely  to  be  right,  because  think- 
ing men  and  fundamental  students  are  relatively 
few ;  yet  it  may  be  the  best  practice,  in  common 
affairs,  to  let  the  majority  have  its  way,  for  this 
provides  the  best  means  of  education. 

It  will  now  be  interesting  to  try  to  picture  to 
ourselves  some  of  the  particular  means  by  which 
social  connection  in  the  open  country  may  be 
brought  about.  It  is  commonly,  but  I  think 
erroneously,  thought  that  community  life  neces- 
sarily means  a  living  together  in  centers  or 
villages.  I  conceive,  on  the  contrary,  that  it  is 
possible  to  develop  a  very  effective  community 
mind  whilst  the  persons  still  remain  on  their 
farms.  In  this  day  of  rapid  communication, 
transportation,  and  spread  of  intelligence,  the 
necessity  of  mere  physical  contiguity  has  partly 
passed  away. 

That  is, "  isolation,"  as  the  city  man  conceives 
of  it,  is  not  necessarily  a  bar  to  community 
feeling.    The  farmer  does  not  think  in  terms  of 


loo    The  Country-Life  Movement 

compact  neighborhoods,  trolley  cars,  and  picture 
shows.  The  country  is  not  "  lonely  "  to  him, 
as  it  is  to  a  city  man.  He  does  not  search  for 
amusement  at  night. 

Hamlet  life. 

It  is  said  that  the  American  farmer  must  live 
in  hamlets,  as  does  the  European  peasant.  The 
hamlet  system  that  exists  in  parts  of  Europe 
represents  the  result  of  an  historical  condition. 
It  is  the  product  of  a  long  line  of  social  evolu- 
tion, during  which  time  the  persons  who  have 
worked  the  land  have  been  peasants,  and  to  a 
greater  or  less  extent  have  not  owned  the  land 
that  they  have  worked. 

Some  persons  fear  that  the  American  farmer  is 
drifting  toward  peasantry.  This  notion  has  no 
doubt  arisen  from  the  fact  that  in  certain  places 
the  man  who  works  the  land  is  driven  to  great 
extremity  of  poverty,  and  he  remains  unedu- 
cated and  undeveloped ;  but  ignorance  and 
poverty  do  not  constitute  peasantry.  The 
peasanthood  of  the  Old  World  is  a  social  caste 
or  class,  and  is  in  part  a  remnant  of  feudal 


Community  Life  loi 

government,  of  religious  subjugation,  and  of 
the  old  necessity  of  protection.  The  present 
day  is  characterized  by  the  rise  of  the  people 
on  the  land ;  this  movement  is  a  part  of  the 
general  rise  of  the  common  people  (or  the  prole- 
tariat). If  popular  education,  popular  rights, 
and  the  general  extension  of  means  of  com- 
munication signify  anything,  it  is  that  we  nec- 
essarily are  developing  away  from  a  condition 
of  peasantry  rather  than  toward  it,  however 
much  degradation  or  unsuccess  there  may  be 
in  certain  regions  or  how  much  inadjustment 
there  may  be  in  the  process  (page  129). 

In  contradistinction  to  the  exclusive  hamlet 
system  of  living  together,  I  would  emphasize 
the  necessity  that  a  first-rate  good  man  must 
live  on  the  farm  if  he  is  to  make  the  most  of 
it.  Farming  by  proxy  or  by  any  absentee 
method  is  just  as  inefficient  and  as  disastrous 
in  the  long  run  as  the  doing  of  any  other 
business  by  proxy;  in  fact,  it  is  Hkely  to  be 
even  more  disastrous  in  the  end  because  it 
usually  results  in  the  depletion  of  the  fertility 
of  the  land,  or  in  the  using  up  of  the  capital 


I02    The  Country-Life  Movement 

stock ;  and  this  becomes  a  national  disaster. 
I  hold  that  it  is  essential  that  the  very  best 
kind  of  people  live  actually  on  the  land.  The 
business  is  conducted  on  the  land.  The  crops 
are  there.  The  live-stock  is  there.  The  ma- 
chinery is  there.  All  the  investment  is  in  the 
place  itself.  If  this  business  is  to  be  most 
effective,  a  good  man  must  constantly  be  with 
it  and  manage  it.  A  farm  is  not  like  a  store  or  a 
factory,  that  is  shut  up  at  night  and  on  Sunday. 

The  more  difficult  and  complex  the  farming 
business  becomes,  the  greater  will  be  the  ne- 
cessity that  a  good  man  remain  with  it. 

We  must  remember  also  that  if  the  land- 
owner or  the  farmer  lives  in  a  village  or  hamlet 
and  another  man  lives  on  his  farm,  a  social 
division  at  once  results,  and  we  have  a  stratifica- 
tion into  two  classes  of  society;  and  this  works 
directly  against  any  community  of  interest.  It 
is  not  likely  that  the  farmer  who  has  retired  to 
town  and  the  hired  man  who  works  his  farm 
under  orders  will  develop  any  very  close  per- 
sonal relation.  The  farmer  becomes  an  ex- 
traneous element  injected  into  the  town,   and 


Community  Life  103 

has  little  interest  in  its  welfare,  and  he  has 
taken  his  personaHty,  enterprise,  and  influence 
out  of  the  country.  He  is  in  a  very  real 
sense  "  a  man  without  a  country."  The  in- 
crease of  his  living  expenses  in  town  is  likely 
to  cause  him  to  raise  the  rent  on  his  farm,  or, 
if  the  tenant  works  for  wages,  to  reduce  the 
improvements  on  the  place  to  the  lowest  extent 
compatible  with  profit.  We  need  above  all 
things  to  produce  such  a  rural  condition  as 
will  satisfy  the  farmer  to  live  permanently  in 
the  country  rather  than  to  move  to  town  when 
the  farm  has  given  him  a  competence. 

I  am  not  to  be  understood  as  saying  that 
farmers  ought  never  to  live  in  town.  There 
will  always  be  shifting  both  ways  between  town 
and  country.  In  some  cases,  small-area  farm- 
ing develops  around  a  village;  or  a  village  grows 
up  because  the  farms  are  small  and  are  inten- 
sively handled.  In  irrigation  regions,  the  whole 
community  may  be  practically  a  hamlet  or  vil- 
lage. In  parts  of  the  Eastern  states,  small 
farmers  sometimes  live  in  the  village  and  go 
to  the  farm  each  day,  to  work  it  themselves. 


I04    The  Country-Life  Movement 

But  all  these  are  special    adaptations,  and  do 
not  constitute  a  broad  agricultural  system. 

In  time  we  probably  shall  develop  a  new 
kind  of  rural  settlement,  one  that  will  be  the 
result  of  cooperative  units  or  organizations,  and 
not  a  consolidation  about  the  present  kinds  of 
business  places ;  but  it  is  a  question  whether 
these  will  be  villages  or  hamlets  in  the  sense  in 
which  we  now  use  these  words. 

The  category  of  agencies. 

My   position,    therefore,    is    that    we    must 
I  evolve  our  social  rural  community  directly  from 
the  land  itself,  and  mostly  by  means  of  the  resi- 
dent forces  that  now  are  there. 

This  being  our  proposition,  it  is  then  neces- 
sary to  discover  whether,  given  permanent  resi- 
dence on  pieces  of  land,  it  is  still  possible  to 
develop  anything  like  a  community  sense.  I 
do  not  now  propose  to  discuss  this  question 
at  any  length,  but  merely  to  call  attention  to  a 
few  ways  in  which  I  think  the  neighborhood 
life  of  the  open  country  may  be  very  distinctly 
improved. 


Community  Life  105 

In  this  discussion,  I  purposely  omit  reference 
to  public  utilities  and  governmental  action,  be- 
cause they  are  outside  my  present  range.  The 
farmer  will  share  with  all  the  people  any  need- 
ful improvement  that  may  be  made  in  regula- 
tion of  transportation  and  transportation  rates, 
in  control  of  corporations,  in  equalizing  of  taxa- 
tion, in  providing  new  means  of  credit,  in  ex- 
tending means  of  communication,  in  revising 
tariffs,  in  reforming  the  currency,  and  in  per- 
fecting the  mail  service. 

To  work  out  the  means  of  neighborhood 
cooperation,  there  should  be  sufficient  and 
attractive  meeting  places.  The  rural  school- 
house  is  seldom  adapted  to  this  purpose.  The 
Grange  hall  does  not  represent  all  the  people. 
The  church  is  not  a  public  institution.  Libraries 
are  yet  insufficient.  Town  halls  are  few,  and 
usually  as  unattractive  as  possible.  There  is 
now  considerable  discussion  of  community 
halls.  Several  of  them  have  been  built  in 
different  parts  of  the  country  to  meet  the  new 
needs,  and  the  practice  should  grow. 

I .    The  mere  increase  of  population  will  nee- 


io6    The  Country-Life  Movement 

essarily  bring  people  closer  together,  and  by 
that  much  it  will  tend  to  social  solidarity. 

2.  The  natural  dividing  up  of  large  farms ^ 
which  is  coming  both  as  a  result  of  the  exten- 
sion of  population  and  from  the  failure  of  cer- 
tain very  large  estates  to  be  profitable,  will  also 
bring  country  people  closer  together.  The  so- 
called  "  bonanza  farms  "  are  unwieldy  and  inef- 
fective economic  units ;  and  many  farmers  are 
"  land  poor." 

3.  We  shall  also  assemble  farms.  The  in- 
creasing population  on  the  land  will  not  always 
result  in  smaller  farms.  Most  of  the  richer 
and  more  profitable  lands  will  gradually  be 
divided  because,  with  our  increased  knowledge 
and  skill,  persons  can  make  a  living  from 
smaller  areas.  The  remoter  and  less  produc- 
tive lands  will  naturally  be  combined  into 
larger  farm  areas,  however,  because  a  large 
proportion  of  such  lands  cannot  make  a  suffi- 
cient profit,  when  divided  into  ordinary  farm 
areas,  to  support  and  educate  a  present-day 
family  (page  38).  Contiguous  areas  of  the 
better   lands    will  be  combined  with  them,  in 


Community  Life  107 

order  to  make  a  good  business  unit.  As  several 
forms  come  together  under  one  general  owner- 
ship, this  owner  will  naturally  gather  about 
him  a  considerable  population  to  work  his 
lands. 

The  probability  is  that,  under  thoroughly 
skillful  single  management,  a  given  area  of 
remote  or  low-productive  lands  will  sustain  a 
larger  population  than  they  are  now  able  to 
sustain  under  the  many  indifferent  or  incom- 
petent ownerships.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that 
some  of  these  amalgamated  areas  will  develop 
a  share-working  or  associative  farming  of  a 
kind  that  is  now  practically  unknown. 

4.  The  re-creative  life  of  the  country  com- 
munity greatly  needs  to  be  stimulated.  Not 
only  games  and  recreation  days  need  to  be 
encouraged,  but  the  spirit  of  release  from  con- 
tinuous and  deadening  toil  must  be  encouraged. 
The  country  population  needs  to  be  livened  up. 
This  will  come  about  through  the  extension  of 
education  and  the  work  of  ministers,  teachers, 
and  organizations.  All  persons  can  come  to- 
gether on  a  recreation  basis  (pp.  173,  211). 


io8    The  Country-Life  Movement 

The  good  farmer  will  have  one  day  a  week 
for  recreation,  vacation,  and  study. 

5.  Local  politics  ought  to  further  the  entire 
neighborhood  life,  rather  than  to  divide  the 
community  into  hostile  camps.  All  move- 
ments, as  direct  nominations,  that  stimulate 
local  initiative  and  develop  the  sense  of  respon- 
sibility in  the  people  will  help  toward  this  end. 

6.  Rural  government  is  commonly  ineffective. 
It  needs  awakening  by  men  and  women  who 
have  arrived  at  some  degree  of  mastery  over 
their  conditions.  We  talk  much  of  the  need 
of  improving  municipal  government,  but  very 
little  about  rural  government ;  yet  government 
in  rural  communities  is  inert  and  dead,  as  com- 
pared with  what  it  might  be,  and  there  is 
probably  as  much  machine  politics  in  it,  in 
proportion  to  the  opportunities,  as  in  city  gov- 
ernment. Very  much  of  the  lack  of  gumption 
in  the  open  country  is  due  to  the  want  of  a 
perfectly  free  and  able  administration  of  the 
public  affairs.^ 

1  See  "The  Training  of  Farmers,"  pp.  26-28,  and 
**The  State  and  the  Farmer,"  p.   125. 


Community  Life  109 

The  whole  political  organization  of  rural 
communities  needs  new  attention,  and  perhaps 
radical  overhauling.  As  I  write  these  sen- 
tences, I  have  before  me  a  newspaper  in  which 
a  progressive  surgeon  expresses  his  opinion 
(which  he  has  verified  for  me)  on  the  question 
of  supervision  of  health  in  a  rural  county  in  an 
Eastern  state.  He  found  the  statistics  too 
inaccurate  and  too  indefinite  to  enable  him  to 
draw  exact  conclusions,  but  these  are  approxi- 
mately the  facts : 

"  No  township  seems  to  have  deliberately 
paid  its  health  officer,  and  but  one  town  delib- 
erately paid  its  poor  physician.  The  others 
paid  various  bills  for  *  quarantine '  and  *  fumi- 
gating* and  'fees'  and  other  misleading  items. 
There  was  no  way  in  which  to  distinguish  be- 
tween the  care  of  the  poor  and  the  sick-poor 
except  to  guess  and  to  figure  on  what  I  hap- 
pened to  know  about.     A ,  the  richest  and 

largest  township,  has  no  health  officers,  and 
spent  $200  for  the  poor  in  a  population  of 
4000  people  living  in  an  area  of  93  square 
miles.     B ,   the   poorest  township,  with  a 


iio    The  Country-Life  Movement 

population  of  looo,  and  an  area  of  36  square 
miles,  paid  her  health  officer  ^28  and  her  poor 
physician  $23. 

"One  township  has  2170  inhabitants  living 
in  51  square  miles  of  territory,  worth  one  and 
one-eighth  million  dollars.  Its  supervisor  is 
paid  $352.95  a  year  for  a  few  days'  work;  its 
officers  are  paid  |6 12.95.  ^^  costs  $274.79 
each  year  to  elect  these  officers,  and  I  under- 
stand each  township  is  to  spend  about  $5000 
for  good  roads.  The  health  officer  that  cares 
for  these  2000  people  over  51  miles  of  terri- 
tory gets  I42. 53  a  year,  and  the  poor  physi- 
cian $34;  while  the  sick-poor  get  helped  to 
the  munificent  sum  of  $59.36,  or  two  and  one- 
half  cents  from  each  citizen.  The  health  offi- 
cers get  almost  exactly  two  cents  a  head  for 
caring  for  the  inhabitants  over  51  square  miles 
of  land.  The  supervisor  gets  out  of  each  in- 
habitant seventeen  cents  a  year,  the  officers  get 
thirty  cents,  while  the  sick-poor  take  from  each 
citizen  almost  three  cents.  The  discrepancy  is 
too  glaring  to  need  comment.  A  community 
assessed  a  million  dollars  and  probably  worth 


Community  Life  1 1 1 

two  millions  spends  I40  a  year  on  public 
health,  and  $60  a  year  on  one-sixteenth  of  its 
population  for  sickness." 

The  physician  proposes  a  county  commis- 
sion to  take  the  place  of  the  board  of  super- 
visors. He  declares  that  the  members  of  the 
board  have  outgrown  their  usefulness.  "  They 
should  be  junked  along  with  other  stage- 
coaches and  a  nice,  new  60  h.  p.  county  com- 
mission put  in  their  place.  The  fact  is  that 
the  system  is  wrong.  Our  *  government '  is  a 
survival  of  early  times,  and  our  science  is  up  to 
date.  They  do  not  fit.  You  cannot  expect 
supervisors  who  were  useful  in  the  time  of 
Adam,  when  there  were  no  cities,  no  problems, 
no  roads,  to  serve  in  the  twentieth  century 
with  its  surgical  treatment  of  degenerates,  its 
germs  and  prophylactics,  its  preventive  medi- 
cine and  its  scientific  spirit.  Supervisors  could 
look  after  noxious  plants  and  animals  in  the  old 
days,  and  they  could  paper  the  court-house 
and  eat  fat  dinners  at  the  poor-house.  They 
did  fairly  well  at  settling  line  fences,  drinking 
sweet    cider,  and    blarneying    with    insurgents. 


112    The  Country-Life  Movement 

But  they  are  out  of  place  when  it  is  a  question 
of  constructing  roads  of  macadam,  of  build- 
ing a  tuberculosis  hospital  for  an  $  18,000,000 
county,  and  especially  they  are  out  of  place 
when  it  is  a  question  of  dozens  of  defectives  in 
the  jails  and  thousands  outside  who  ought  to 
be  in  hospitals." 

7.  A  community  program  for  health^  is  much 
needed.  The  farmer  lives  by  himself  in  his  own 
house,  on  his  own  place.  If  a  disease  arises 
in  his  neighbor's  family,  it  is  not  likely  to 
spread  to  his  family.  Therefore,  disease  has 
seemed  to  him  to  be  a  personal  rather  than  a 
neighborhood  matter.  There  is  the  greatest 
need  that  the  farmer  possess  a  community  sense 
in  respect  to  disease  and  sanitary  conditions. 
If  the  city  is  the  center  of  enlightenment,  it 
should  help  the  country  to  get  hold  of  this 
problem. 

We  should  have  a  thoroughgoing  system  of 
health  supervision  and  inspection  for  the  open 
country  as  well  as    in   the  city.      Health    in- 

1  Another  discussion  of  rural  health  will  he  found  in  my 
"Training  of  Farmers,"  pp.  46-68.      The  Century  Co. 


Community  Life  113 

spection  should  run  out  from  the  cities  and 
towns  into  all  the  adjoining  regions,  maintain- 
ing proper  connections  with  state  departments 
of  health.  It  shouldbe  continuous.  It  should 
include  inspection  of  animals  as  well  as  of 
human  beings.  In  other  words,  the  whole 
region  is  a  unit,  one  part  depending  on  the 
other.  The  remarks  of  the  physician,  just 
quoted,  indicate  how  great  is  the  need  of  an 
organized  health  supervision  for  country  com- 
munities. 

We  need  meat  inspection  laws  for  meat 
killed  and  sold  within  the  states,  to  supplement 
the  inter-state  law.  We  need  community 
slaughter-houses  in  which  all  slaughtering  of 
animals  shall  be  under  proper  inspection. 
We  need  state  milk  inspection  programs.  It 
is  not  right  that  any  large  city  should  be  com- 
pelled to  inspect  the  milk  throughout  the 
state  in  order  to  protect  itself  It  is  not  right 
to  the  farming  districts  that  such  inspection 
should  center  in  the  city. 

We  must  not  assume  that  the  farmer  is 
specially  guilty  of  sanitary  faults.     There  are 


1 1 4    The  Country-Life  Movement 

many  such  shortcomings  in  the  open  country, 
and  I  accept  them  without  apology ;  but  I  can 
match  them  every  one  in  city  conditions.  The 
fact  is  that  the  whole  people  has  not  yet  risen 
to  an  appreciation  of  thoroughly  sanitary  con- 
ditions, and  we  cannot  say  that  this  deficiency 
is  the  special  mark  of  any  one  class  of  our  popu- 
lation. Persons  ride  along  the  country  roads 
and  see  repulsive  barn-yards,  glaring  manure 
piles,  untidy  back-yards,  and  at  once  make  re- 
marks about  them.  All  these  things  are  rele- 
gated to  the  rear  in  towns  and  cities  and  are 
not  so  visible,  but  they  exist  there. 

I  know  that  there  are  very  filthy  stables  in 
the  country  districts,  but  I  have  never  known 
worse  stable  conditions  than  I  have  seen  in 
cities  and  towns.  All  progress  in  these  direc- 
tions must  come  slowly,  and  we  must  remem- 
ber that  it  is  expensive  to  rebuild  and  reorganize 
a  stable.  No  doubt  one  of  the  reasons  for  the 
high  cost  of  hving  is  the  demand  of  the  people 
that  pure-food  laws  shall  be  enacted  and  en- 
forced, for  this  all  adds  to  the  cost  of  food  sup- 
plies ;  similarly,  we  must  expect  a  betterment 


Community  Life  115 

in  conditions  of  stabling  to  result  in  increased 
price  of  dairy  products.  In  the  cost  of  living 
we  must  figure  the  expense  of  having  clean  and 
pure  food. 

The  farmer  is  much  criticized  for  polluting 
streams;  but  when  the  farmer  pollutes  one 
stream  occasionally,  a  city  will  pollute  a  whole 
system  of  streams  continually.  One  of  the 
greatest  sins  of  society  is  the  wholesale  befoul- 
ment  of  streams,  lakes,  and  water-courses.  I  do 
not  see  how  we  can  expect  to  be  called  a  civi- 
lized people  until  we  have  taken  care  of  our 
refuse  without  using  it  to  fill  up  ponds  and 
lakes,  and  to  corrupt  the  free  water  supplies  of 
the  earth. 

If  the  countryman  has  been  ignorant  of  sani- 
tary conditions,  we  must  remember  that  his 
ideas  are  largely  such  as  he  has  derived  from 
teachers,  physicians,  and  others. 

We  cannot  expect  a  man  to  develop  within 
himself  enough  community  pride  and  altruism 
to  compel  him  to  go  to  great  expense  for  the 
benefit  of  the  public ;  but  he  will  gladly  con- 
tribute his  part  to  a  public  program. 


1 1 6    The  Country-Life  Movement 

8.  Local  factories  and  industries  of  whatever 
kind  tend  to  develop  community  pride  and 
effectiveness.  Creameries  have  had  a  marked 
effect  in  this  way  in  many  places,  giving  the 
community  or  locality  a  reason  for  existence 
and  a  pride  in  itself  that  it  never  had  before, 
or  at  least  that  it  had  not  enjoyed  since  the 
passing  out  of  the  small  factories.  There  is 
much  need  of  local  industries  in  the  open 
country,  whether  they  are  distinctly  agricultural 
or  otherwise,  not  only  for  the  purpose  of  pro- 
viding additional  employment  for  country 
people  but  to  direct  the  flow  of  capital  and  en- 
terprise into  the  country  and  to  stimulate  local 
interest  of  all  kinds.  It  is  not  by  any  means 
essential  that  all  the  new  life  in  country  neigh- 
borhoods should  be  primarily  agricultural. 

Much  has  been  said  of  late  about  the  neces- 
sity of  introducing  the  handicrafts  in  the  open 
country  in  winter  with  the  idea  of  providing 
work  for  farm  people  during  that  season.  I 
do  not  look  for  any  great  extension  of  this  idea 
in  real  agricultural  sections,  and  for  the  follow- 
ing reasons:  (i)  because  as  better  agriculture 


Community  Life  117 

develops,  the  farms  will  of  themselves  employ 
their  help  more  continuously.  Modern  di- 
versified and  intensive  farming  brings  about 
this  result.  The  present-day  dairying  employs 
men  continuously.  The  fruit-grower  needs 
help  in  winter  for  pruning  and  spraying.  Live- 
stock men  need  help  in  feeding  and  caring  for 
the  animals.  Modern  floriculture  and  vege- 
table-gardening are  likely  to  run  the  year  round. 
(2)  The  conditions  of  American  country  life 
are  such  that  skilled  handicraft  has  not  arisen 
amongst  the  rural  people,  and  we  cannot  expect 
that  it  will  arise.  Skilled  artisanship  of  this 
kind  is  not  the  growth  of  a  generation,  nor  is 
it  a  result  of  the  utilization  of  merely  a  few 
weeks  or  months  of  time.  (3)  It  is  very 
doubtful  whether  such  handicrafts  as  are  often 
mentioned  could  compete  in  the  markets  with 
the  goods  produced  by  consolidated  factories, 
or  could  find  a  sufficient  patronage  of  people 
interested  in  this  kind  of  handicraft  products. 

I  am  not  arguing  against  the  introduction  of 
handicrafts,  but  wish  only  to  call  attention  to 
what  I  think  to  be  an  error  in  some  of  the  cur- 


1 1 8    The  Country-Life  Movement 

rent  discussions.  I  am  convinced  that  local 
industries  of  one  kind  or  another  will  find  their 
way  into  the  open  country  in  the  next  genera- 
tion, and  greatly  to  the  advantage  of  the  coun- 
try itself;  but  the  most  useful  of  them  will  be 
regular  factories  able  to  compete  with  other 
factories.  Their  largest  results  will  come  not 
in  providing  employment  for  persons  who 
temporarily  need  it,  but  in  developing  a  new 
community  life  in  the  places  where  they  stand. 
9.  The  country  store  ought  to  be  a  factor  in 
rural  betterment.  How  to  make  it  so,  I  do 
not  know.  The  country  store  is  the  nexus 
between  the  manufacturers  or  the  city  jobbers, 
with  their  "agreements,"  on  the  one  hand,  and 
the  people,  on  the  other  hand,  whose  com- 
mercial independence  the  jobbers  may  desire  to 
control.  The  country  merchant  takes  up  the 
cause  of  the  large  dealer,  because  his  own  wel- 
fare is  involved,  and  he  unconsciously  becomes 
one  of  the  agencies  through  which  the  open 
country  is  drained  and  restrained.  The  parcels 
post  —  which  must  come  —  will  probably  con- 
siderably modify  this  establishment,  although 


Community  Life  119 

I  do  not  look  for  its  abolition  nor  desire  it. 
Certain  interests  make  strong  opposition  to  the 
parcels  post  on  the  ground  that  it  will  ruin  the 
country  merchant  and,  therefore,  the  country 
town.  I  doubt  if  it  will  do  any  such  thing ;  but 
even  if  it  should,  the  end  to  be  gained  is  not 
that  the  country  merchant  shall  not  be  disturbed, 
but  that  the  people  at  large  may  be  benefited. 
No  one  knows  just  what  form  of  readjustment 
the  parcels  post  will  bring  about ;  but  trade  will 
very  soon  readjust  itself  to  this  condition  as  it 
has  reacted  to  the  introduction  of  farm  ma- 
chinery, good  roads,  the  telegraph  and  tele- 
phone, rural  free  delivery. 

The  trader  in  the  small  town  in  some  parts 
of  the  country  is  likely  to  own  the  people. 
He  is  almost  necessarily  opposed  to  coopera- 
tion and  to  any  new  movements  that  do  not 
tend  to  enlarge    his  trade. 

I  wish  we  might  also  do  something  with  the 
country  hotel. 

10.  The  business  mens  organizations,  or 
chambers  of  commerce,  in  villages  and  country 
cities  will  not  confine  their  activities  within  the 


I20    The  Country-Life  Movement 

city  boundaries  in  the  future.  A  wholly  new 
field  for  usefulness  and  for  the  making  of  per- 
sonal reputation  lies  right  here.  The  business 
organization  of  one  village  or  city  should  ex- 
tend out  into  the  country  until  it  meets  a  simi- 
lar organization  from  the  adjoining  village,  and 
the  whole  region  should  be  commercially  de- 
veloped (pages  122—123).  A  chamber  of  com- 
merce could  exert  much  influence  toward 
making  a  better  reputation  for  the  pack  of 
apples,  or  for  other  output  of  the  region. 

1 1 .  The  influence  of  certain  great  corporations 
is  likely  to  be  felt  on  the  rural  readjustment. 
This  is  particularly  true  of  the  new  interest 
that  railroads  are  taking  in  Eastern  agriculture. 
A  coordination  between  railroads  and  farming 
interests  will  do  very  much  for  the  property 
of  both  sides ;  and  the  railroads  can  exercise 
great  power  in  tying  country  communities  to- 
gether. The  Wall  Street  Journal  comments 
as  follows  on  the  situation,  after  calling  atten- 
tion to  the  fact  that  the  "  Eastern  trunk  lines 
have  already  entered  upon  a  campaign  for  the 
encouragement  of  agriculture  "  : 


Community  Life  I2I 

"  Thirty-six  years  ago  the  Pennsylvania  state 
legislature  made  an  effort  to  save  the  farmers 
of  that  state  from  the  damaging  competition  of 
ruinously  low  rates  on  Western  grain  to  Eastern 
mills  and  to  the  seaboard.  The  result  was  prac- 
tically nil.  Eastern  farmers  were  left  so  com- 
pletely out  in  the  cold  that  thousands  of  them 
sold  out  and  went  West  to  raise  more  grain  there, 
still  further  to  handicap  the  Eastern  producer. 
The  widespread  bankruptcy  of  the  middle  states 
farmers  during  the  eighties  was  a  consequence 
partly  of  cut-throat  competition  among  railroads 
to  haul  Western  grain  to  the  East  at  less  than 
cost,  and  partly  the  result  of  a  general  depression 
from  which  it  took  ten  full  years  to  recover. 

"What  is  it  that  has  brought  the  railroads 
to  the  farmers  on  terms  of  cooperation  for  the 
development  of  their  common  territory  ?  It 
is  the  same  thing  which  has  served  the  rail- 
roads so  admirably  in  the  solution  of  their  cost 
problems.  It  is  science  applied  to  reducing 
the  expenses  of  transportation  in  the  one  case, 
and  to  the  greater  mastery  of  the  resources  of 
the  soil  in  the  other  case.     In    this   lies    the 


122    The  Country-Life  Movement 

possibility  of  increasing  railway  freight  to  and 
from  rural  sources.  The  cooperation  of  trans- 
portation and  agriculture,  in  the  East  especially, 
is  not  wholly  new,  but  it  is  highly  significant. 

"  Nothing  could  be  more  encouraging  than 
the  service  which  the  railroads  are  beginning 
to  render  in  the  better  distribution  of  popula- 
tion over  the  land,  by  putting  a  premium  on 
good  farming  and  encouraging  the  young  to 
find  careers  for  themselves  in  rural  industries." 

12.  Local  institutions  of  all  kinds  must  have 
a  powerful  effect  in  evolving  a  good  community 
sense.  This  is  true  in  a  superlative  degree  of 
the  school,  the  church,  the  fair,  and  the  rural 
Hbrary.  These  institutions  will  bring  into  the 
community  the  best  thought  of  the  world  and 
will  use  it  in  the  development  of  the  people  in 
the  locality. 

Such  institutions  must  do  an  extension  work. 
The  church,  from  the  nature  of  its  organiza- 
tion, could  readily  extend  itself  beyond  its 
regular  and  essential  gospel  work.  The  high- 
school  will  hold  winter-courses  and  will  take 
itself  out  to  its  constituency.  The  library  ought 
to  occupy  its  whole  territory  (page  92). 


Community  Life  123 

Similarly,  village  improvement  societies 
should  organize  country  and  town  together, 
extending  tree-care,  better  roads,  lawn  improve- 
ment, and  other  good  work  throughout  the 
entire  community  contributory  to  the  city. 
Civic  societies,  fraternal  orders,  hospital  as- 
sociations, business  organizations  (page  119), 
women's  clubs  and  federations,  could  do  the 
same. 

13.  The  local  rural  press  ought  to  have  a 
powerful  influence  in  furthering  community 
action.  Many  small  rural  newspapers  are 
meeting  their  local  needs,  and  are  to  be  consid- 
ered among  the  agents  that  make  for  an  im- 
proved country  life.  In  proportion  as  the 
support  of  the  country  newspaper  is  provided 
by  political  organizations,  hack  politicians,  and 
patent  medicine  advertisements,  will  its  power  as 
a  public  organ  remain  small  and  undeveloped. 

14.  The  influence  of  the  many  kinds  of  exten- 
sion teaching  is  bound  to  be  marked.  Reading- 
courses,  itinerant  lectures,  the  organizing  of 
boys'  and  girls'  clubs,  demonstration  farms, 
the  inspections  of  dairies,  orchards,  and  other 


124    The  Country-Life  Movement 

farms,  and  of  irrigation  supplies,  the  organiza- 
tion of  such  educational  societies  as  cow-testing 
societies,  and  the  like,  touch  the  very  core  of 
the  rural  problem.  The  influence  of  the  travel- 
ing teacher  is  already  beginning  to  be  felt,  and 
it  will  increase  greatly  in  the  immediate  future. 
I  mean  by  the  traveling  teacher  the  person 
who  goes  out  from  the  agricultural  college,  the 
experiment  station,  the  state  or  national  depart- 
ment of  agriculture,  or  other  similar  institutions, 
to  impart  agricultural  information,  and  to  set 
the  people  right  toward  their  own  problems. 

15.  The  modern  extension  of  all  kinds  of 
communication  will  unite  the  people,  even  though 
it  does  not  result  in  making  them  move  their 
residences.  I  have  in  mind  good  highways, 
telephones,  rural  free  deliveries,  and  the  like. 
The  automobile  is  already  beginning  to  have 
its  effect  in  certain  rural  communities,  but  we 
have  yet  scarcely  begun  to  develop  the  type  of 
auto-vehicle  which  is  destined,  I  think,  to  make 
a  very  great  change  in  country  affairs.  The 
improvement  of  highways  on  a  regular  plan 
will  itself  tend  to  organize  the  rural  districts. 


Community  Life  125 

We  must  add  to  all  this  a  thoroughly  devel- 
oped system  of  parcels  post,  not  only  that  the 
farmer  may  receive  mail,  but  that  he  may  also 
have  greater  facilities  and  freedom  to  transact 
his  business  with  the  world  (page  118). 

16.  Economic  or  business  cooperation  must  be 
extended.  There  is  much  cooperation  of  this 
kind  among  American  farmers,  more  than  most 
persons  are  aware.  Some  of  it  is  very  effective, 
but  much  of  it  is  cooperative  only  in  name. 
It  takes  the  form  of  milk  organizations,  cream- 
eries, fruit  associations,  poultry  societies, 
farmers*  grain  elevators,  unions  for  buying 
and  selling,  and  the  like,  some  of  which  are 
of  great  extent. 

A  really  cooperating  association  is  one  in 
which  all  members  take  active  part  in  gov- 
ernment and  control,  and  share  in  their  just 
proportions  in  the  results.  It  is  properly  a 
society,  rather  than  a  company.  Many  so-called 
cooperative  units  are  really  stock  companies, 
in  which  a  few  persons  control,  and  the  remainder 
become  patrons ;  and  others  are  mere  share- 
holding organizations. 


126    The  Country-Life  Movement 

Business  cooperation  in  agriculture  is  of  three 
kinds:  (i)  cooperative  production;  (2)  coop- 
erative buying ;  (3)  cooperative  selling.  The 
last  two  are  extensively  practiced  in  many 
regions.  Cooperative  production  of  animals 
and  crops  is  practically  unknown  in  the  rural 
communities  in  the  United  States,  and  we  are 
not  to  expect  it  to  arise  in  those  communities 
to  any  extent  under  the  present  organization 
of  society.  Colonies  organized  on  a  coopera- 
tive basis  may  practice  it  within  their  member- 
ship, but  it  is  doubtful  whether  persons  who 
are  well  equipped  to  be  farmers  will  enter  such 
organizations  for  this  purpose  so  long  as  it  is 
so  easy  to  make  a  financial  success  at  inde- 
pendent farming. 

There  is  a  fourth  form  that  should  be  men- 
tioned, although  it  is  not  cooperation  in  the 
real  sense,  but  rather  a  form  of  combination. 
I  refer  to  movements  to  control  the  production 
or  output  of  commodities,  as  of  wheat,  cotton, 
tobacco,  maize,  and  arbitrarily  to  fix  the  price. 
This  cannot  be  permanently  accomplished  with 
any  of  the  great  staples,  and  even  if  it  could 


Community  Life  127 

be  accomplished,  in  my  opinion  it  would  be  an 
economic  and  social  error. 

Very  much  has  been  said  about  the  necessity 
of  business  cooperation  among  farmers,  and  the 
importance  of  the  subject  can  hardly  be  over- 
stated; and  yet  it  should  be  understood  that 
economic  cooperation  is  only  one  of  many  means 
that  may  be  put  in  operation  to  propel  country 
life.  The  essential  thing  is  that  country  life  be 
organized :  if  the  organization  is  cooperative, 
the  results  —  at  least  theoretically  —  should  be  I 
the  best ;  but  in  one  place,  the  most  needed 
cooperation  may  be  social,  in  another  place 
educational,  in  another  religious,  in  another 
political,  in  another  sanitary,  in  another  eco- 
nomic in  respect  to  buying  and  selling  and 
making  loans  or  providing  insurance.  When 
the  chief  deficiency  in  any  region  is  economic, 
then  it  should  be  met  by  an  organization  that  is 
primarily  economic.  Some  of  the  effective  co- 
operation in  the  West,  so  often  cited,  is  really 
founded  on  the  land-selling  spirit  of  the  com- 
munity. 

In   some    parts    of  the   United   States,   the 


128    The  Country-Life  Movement 

financial  status  of  the  farmer  is  v  ry  low,  but 
in  general  the  economic  condition  h  in  advance 
of  other  conditions.  The  American  farmer  is 
prosperous,  —  not  as  prosperous  as  he  ought 
to  be,  but  so  prosperous  that  he  can  conduct 
his  own  business  without  support  or  aid  of  his 
neighbors.  Although  he  might  gain  finan- 
cially by  cooperation  in  any  case,  he  never- 
theless desires  his  complete  freedom  of  action, 
even  at  the  risk  of  some  loss.  The  psychol- 
ogy of  the  American  farmer  is  in  the  end  the 
determining  factor. 

In  other  countries,  this  may  not  be  so  true, 
and  particularly  not  when  the  farmers  live 
under  such  a  condition  of  peasanthood  (or 
do  not  comprise  a  middle  class)  that  no  one 
of  them  in  a  community  is  able  independently 
to  buy  his  tools  or  his  live-stock,  or  to  secure 
sufficient  funds  to  provide  a  small  working 
capital,  when  both  sales  and  purchases  are 
very  small,  and  when  the  entire  community  is 
practically  subjugated  by  a  political  system. 
The  big  people  are  more  likely  to  combine 
than   to    cooperate.     Close    cooperation    natu- 


-  Gommunity  Life  129 

rally  works  ^best  in  a  peasantry  and  under  a 
paternal  government ;  it  becomes  a  means  of 
bringing  up  the  peasantry,  of  relieving  them  of 
oppressioA,  and  of  giving  them  the  rights  that 
should  be'theirs  as  a  part  of  their  citizenship. 

In  Denmark,  the  cooperative  movement  has    ] 
been  one  means  of  the  salvation  of  the  country,     ;  "Tv 
following   the    disastrous    German    war.     The 
movement  in  some  parts  of  the  world  is  really     / 
a  culture  movement,  having  for  a  background 
the  general  good  of  society. 

The  American  white  farmer  is  not  a  peasant; 
he  is  not  submerged  in  a  hopeless  political  and 
economic  slavery ;  he  has  his  vote,  his  free 
school,  his  fee  to  hold  property  without  let 
or  hindrance,  his  full  right  to  make  the  most 
of  himself,  his  "rights"  (pages  100  and  65). 
I  think  it  will  be  possible  for  him  to  exercise 
these  privileges  and  at  the  same  time  to  share 
the  benefits  of  cooperation ;  but  cooperation  is 
not  necessary  to  win  him  these  privileges.  It 
is  not  the  unit  in  his  life,  not  the  nucleus  out 
of  which  all  other  agencies  must  evolve,  or  the 
leaven   that   will   raise  the  lump :    it  is   itself 


I 


130    The   Country-Life  Movement 

one  coordinating  part  in  a  program  of  evolu- 
tion. We  do  not  have  the  problem  of  peasant 
proprietorship.  For  the  most  part,  the  Amer- 
ican farmer  has  already  won  his  economic 
independence,  if  not  his  just  rewards. 

We  should  not  be  impatient  if  our  farmers  do 
not  organize  themselves  cooperatively  as  rapidly 
as  we  think  they  ought  to  organize. 

Economic  personal  cooperation  may  be  ex- 
pected to  thrive  best  in  a  community  of  small 
farmers.  It  is  a  question  whether  we  shall  de- 
velop the  strongest  leaders  in  a  condition  of 
more  or  less  uniform  small  farms.  There  is 
much  to  be  said  in  favor  of  rather  large  farming 
(say  500  to  1000  acres),  for  a  business  of  this 
proportion  demands  a  strong  man.  This  does 
not  mean  landlordism,  which  is  a  part  of  a 
political  and  hereditary  system,  but  merely  large 
and  competent  business  organization.  Such 
farmers,  if  they  are  so  minded,  can  accomplish 
great  things  for  their  fellows. 

I  am  looking  for  some  of  the  best  results  in 
cooperation  to  come  from  the  establishment  of 
field-laboratories  and  demonstration  farms,  to 


Community  Life  131 

which  the  farmers  of  the  locality  contribute 
their  personal  funds  in  the  expectation  of  an 
educational  result.  The  best  results  to  country 
life  cannot  possibly  come  by  the  government 
continuing  to  take  everything  to  the  farmer 
free  of  cost  and  without  the  asking.  Dis- 
advantaged or  undeveloped  regions  must  be 
aided  freely,  but  as  rapidly  as  any  localities  or 
industries  get  on  their  fetty  they  should  meet 
the  state  part  way,  and  should  assume  their 
natural  share  of  the  expense  and  responsibility. 
This  form  of  cooperation  is  already  well  under 
way ;  and  I  suspect  that  in  many  localities 
that  have  been  dead  to  all  forms  of  cooperative 
effort,  this  idea  will  afford  the  starting-point 
for  a  new  community  life. 

From  this  form  of  education-cooperation,  it 
would  be  but  a  step  to  a  neighborhood  effort 
to  introduce  new  crops  and  high-class  bulls,  to 
undertake  drainage  enterprises  and  reforesta- 
tion ;  and  to  unite  on  business  matters. 

It  is  possible  for  a  national  organization 
movement  to  come  out  of  the  existing  agri- 
cultural institutions  in  the  United  States. 


132    The  Country-Life  Movement 

We  may  picture  to  ourselves  a  perfectly  co- 
operating rural  society  that  will  have  all  the 
means  of  its  salvation  within  itself.  Even  if 
we  accept  this  picture,  we  cannot  say  that  the 
structure  will  rise  out  of  one  seed  or  starting- 
point,  or  that  one  phase  of  cooperation  is  of 
necessity  primary  and  another  final.  Our  theo- 
retical structure  will  arise  from  several  or 
many  beginnings;  it  will  be  a  complex  of  num- 
berless units  ;  whatever  range  of  cooperation  is 
found,  by  investigation,  to  be  now  most  needed 
in  any  community,  must  be  the  one  with  which 
we  are  to  set  that  community  going. 

17.  In  the  end  everything  depends  on  per- 
sonal gumption  and  guidance.  It  is  not  strange 
that  we  have  lacked  the  kind  of  guidance  that 
brings  country  people  together,  because  we 
have  not  had  the  kind  of  education  that  pro- 
duces it ;  and,  in  fact,  this  kind  of  guidance 
has  not  been  so  necessary  in  the  past  as  it  is 
now.  A  new  motive  in  education  is  gradually 
beginning  to  shape  itself.  This  must  produce  a 
new  kind  of  outlook  on  country  questions,  and 
it  will  bring  out  a  good  many  men  and  women 


Community  Life  133 

who  will  be  guides  in  the  country  as  their  fel- 
lows will  be  guides  in  the  city.  They  will  be 
captains  because  they  will  perform  the  common 
work  of  farming  regions  in  an  uncommon  way. 
I  think  we  little  realize  to-day  what  the  effect 
will  be  in  twenty-five  years  of  the  young  men 
and  women  that  the  colleges  of  agriculture  in 
these  days  are  sending  into  the  country  districts. 

Community  interest  is  of  the  spirit. 

In  conclusion,  let  us  remember  that  every-j 
thing  that  develops  the  common  commercial,! 
intellectual,  recreative,  and  spiritual  interests  of  I 
the  rural  people,  ties  them  together  socially. 
Residing  near  together  is  only  one  of  the  means 
of  developing  a  community  life,  and  it  is  not 
now  the  most  important  one.  Persons  who 
reside  close  together  may  still  be  torn  asunder 
by  divergent  interests  and  a  simple  lack  of  any 
tie  that  binds ;  this  is  notably  true  in  many 
country  villages. 

Community  of  purpose  and  spirit  is  much 
more  important  than  community  of  houses. 
Community  pride  is  a  good  product;  it  pro- 
duces a  common  mind. 


A  POINT  OF  VIEW  ON  THE  LABOR 
PROBLEM 

It  is  a  general  complaint  in  the  United 
States  that  there  is  scarcity  of  good  labor.  I 
have  found  the  same  complaint  in  parts  of 
Europe,  and  Europeans  lay  much  of  the  blame 
of  it  on  America  because  their  working  classes 
migrate  so  much  to  this  country  ;  and  they  seem 
to  think  we  must  now  be  well  supplied  with  labor. 
Labor  scarcity  is  felt  in  the  cities  and  trades,  in 
country  districts,  in  mines,  and  on  the  sea.  It 
seems  to  be  serious  in  regions  in  which  there 
is  much  unemployed  population.  It  is  a  real 
problem  in  the  Southern  states. 

While  farmers  seem  now  to  complain  most 
of  the  labor  shortage,  the  difficulty  is  not  pecu- 
liarly rural.  Good  farmers  feel  it  least ;  they 
have  mastered  this  problem  along  with  other 
problems.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  doubtful 
whether  there  is  a  real  labor  shortage  as  meas- 

134 


Point  of  View  on  Labor  Problem   135 

ured  by  previous  periods ;  but  it  is  very  difficult 
to  secure  good  labor  on  the  previous  terms  and 
conditions. 

Reasons  for  the  labor  question. 

The  supposed  short  labor  supply  is  not  a 
temporary  condition.  It  is  one  of  the  results 
of  the  readjustment  and  movement  of  society. 
A  few  of  the  immediate  causes  may  be  stated, 
to  illustrate  the  nature  of  the  situation. 

(i)  In  a  large  way,  the  labor  problem  is  the 
result  of  the  passing  out  of  the  people  from 
slavery  and  serfdom,  —  the  rise  of  the  working 
classes  out  of  subjugation.  Peoples  tend  always 
to  rise  out  of  the  laboring-man  phase.  We 
would  not  have  it  otherwise  if  we  desire  social 
democracy. 

(2)  It  is  due  in  part  to  the  great  amount 
and  variety  of  constructive  work  that  is  now 
being  done  in  the  world,  with  the  consequent 
urgent  call  for  human  hands.  The  engineering 
and  building  trades  have  extended  enormously. 
We  are  doing  kinds  of  work  that  we  had  not 
dreamed  of  a  half-hundred  years  ago. 


136    The  Country-Life  Movement 

(3)  In  some  places  the  labor  difficulty  is 
due  to  the  working-men  being  drawn  off  to 
other  places,  through  the  perfecting  of  industrial 
organization.  The  organization  of  labor  means 
companionship  and  social  attraction.  Labor 
was  formerly  solitary ;  it  is  now  becoming 
gregarious. 

(4)  In  general,  men  and  women  go  where 
things  are  "  doing."  Things  have  not  been 
doing  on  the  farms.  There  has  been  a  gradual 
passing  out  from  backward  or  stationary  occu- 
pations into  the  moving  occupations.  Labor 
has  felt  this  movement  along  with  the  rest. 
It  has  been  natural  and  inevitable  that  farms 
should  have  lost  their  labor.  Cities  and  great 
industrialism  could  not  develop  without  them  ; 
and  they  have  made  the  stronger  bid. 

(5)  In  farming  regions,  the  outward  move- 
ment of  labor  has  been  specially  facilitated  by 
lack  of  organization  there,  by  the  introduction 
of  farm  machinery,  by  the  moving  up  of  ten- 
ants into  the  class  of  renters  and  owners,  by 
lack  of  continuous  employment,  by  relatively 
low  pay,  by  absence  of  congenial  association  as 


Point  of  View  on  Labor  Problem   137 

compared  with  the  town.  Much  of  the  hired 
farm  labor  is  the  sons  of  farmers  and  of  others, 
who  "  work  out "  only  until  they  can  purchase 
a  farm.  Some  of  it  is  derived  from  the  class 
of  owners  who  drift  downward  to  tenants,  to 
laboring  men,  and  sometimes  to  shifters.  We 
are  now  securing  more  or  less  foreign-born  labor 
on  the  farms.  Much  of  this  is  merely  seasonal ; 
and  when  it  is  not  seasonal,  the  immigrant  de- 
sires to  become  a  farm  owner  himself.  If  the 
labor  is  seasonal,  the  man  may  return  to  his 
native  home  or  to  the  city,  and  in  either  case 
he  is  likely  to  be  lost  to  the  open  country. 

The  remedies. 

There  is  really  no  "  solution  "  for  the  labor 
difficulty.  The  problem  is  inherent  in  the 
economic  and  social  situation.  It  may  be  re- 
lieved here  and  there  by  the  introduction  of 
immigrants  or  by  transportation  of  laborers  at 
certain  times  from  the  city ;  but  the  only  real 
relief  lies  in  the  general  working  out  of  the 
whole  economic  situation.  The  situation  will 
gradually  correct  itself;  but  the  readjustment 


138    The  Country-Life  Movement 

will  come  much  more  quickly  if  we  understand 
the  conditions. 

As  new  interest  arises  in  the  open  country 
and  as  additional  values  accrue,  persons  will 
remain  in  the  country  or  will  return  to  it ;  and 
the  labor  will  remain  or  return  with  the  rest. 
As  the  open  country  fills  up,  we  probably  shall 
develop  a  farm  artisan  class,  comprised  of  per- 
sons who  will  be  skilled  workmen  in  certain  lines 
of  farming  as  other  persons  are  skilled  work- 
men in  manufactures  and  the  trades.  These 
persons  will  have  class  pride.  We  now  have 
practically  no  farm  artisans,  but  solitary  and 
more  or  less  migratory  working-men  who 
possess  no  high-class  manual  skill.  Farm  labor 
must  be  able  to  earn  as  much  as  other  labor  of 
equal  grade,  and  it  must  develop  as  much  skill 
as  other  labor,  if  it  is  to  hold  its  own.  This 
means,  of  course,  that  the  farming  scheme  may 
need  to  be  reorganized  (pages  86  to  90). 

Specifically,  the  farm  must  provide  more 
continuous  employment  if  it  is  to  hold  good 
labor.  The  farmer  replies  that  he  does  not 
have  employment  for  the  whole  year ;  to  which 


Point  of  View  on  Labor  Problem   139 

the  answer  is  that  the  business  should  be  so 
reorganized  as  to  make  it  a  twelve  months' 
enterprise.  The  introduction  of  crafts  and 
local  manufactures  will  aid  to  some  extent,  but 
it  cannot  take  care  of  the  situation  (page  115). 
In  some  way  the  farm  laborer  must  be  reached 
educationally,  either  by  winter  schools,  night 
schools,  or  other  means.  Every  farm  should 
itself  be  a  school  to  train  more  than  one  laborer. 
The  larger  part  of  the  farm  labor  must  be 
country  born.  With  the  reorganization  of 
country  life  and  its  increased  earning  power, 
we  ought  to  see  an  increase  in  the  size  of 
country  families. 

Public  or  social  bearings. 

It  is  doubtful  if  city  industrialism  is  devel-'*' 
oping  the  best  type  of  working-men,  considered 
from  the  point  of  view  of  society  (page  59).  I 
am  glad  of  all  organizations  of  men  and  women, 
whether  working-men  or  not.  But  it  seems  to 
me  that  the  emphasis  in  some  of  the  organi- 
zations has  been  wrongly  placed.  It  has  too 
often   been    placed   on  rights  rather  than   on 


140    The  Country-Life  Movement 

duties.  No  person  and  no  people  ever  devel- 
oped by  mere  insistence  on  their  rights.  It  is 
responsibility  that  develops  them.  The  work- 
ing-man owes  responsibility  to  his  employer 
and  to  society ;  and  so  long  as  the  present 
organization  of  society  continues  he  cannot 
be  an  effective  member  of  society  unless  he 
has  the  interest  of  his  employer  constantly 
in  mind. 

The  real  country  working-men  must  consti- 
tute a  group  quite  by  themselves.  They  cannot 
be  organized  on  the  basis  on  which  some  other 
folk  are  organized.  There  can  be  no  rigid  short- 
hour  system  on  a  farm.  The  farm  laborer  can- 
not drop  his  reins  or  leave  his  pitchfork  in 
the  air  when  the  whistle  blows.  He  must 
remain  until  his  piece  of  work  is  completed ; 
this  is  the  natural  responsibility  of  a  farm 
laborer,  and  it  is  in  meeting  this  responsibility 
that  he  is  able  to  rise  to  the  upper  grade  and 
to  develop  his  usefulness  as  a  citizen. 

It  is  a  large  question  whether  we  are  to  have 
a  distinct  working-class  in  the  country  as  dis- 
tinguished from  the  land-owning  farmer.     The 


Point  of  View  on  Labor  Problem   1 4 1 

old  order  is  one  of  perfect  democracy,  in  which 
the  laboring-man  is  a  part  of  the  farmer's  family. 
It  is  not  to  be  expected  that  this  condition  can 
continue  in  its  old  form,  but  the  probability 
is  that  there  will  always  be  a  different  rela- 
tion between  working-man  and  employer  in 
the  country  from  that  which  obtains  in  the 
city.  The  relation  will  be  more  direct  and 
personal.  The  employer  will  always  feel  his 
sense^of  obligation  and  responsibility  to  the  man 
whom  he  employs  and  to  the  man's  family. 
Persons  do  not  starve  to  death  in  the  open 
country. 

Some  persons  think  that  the  farming  of  the 
future  is  still  to  be  performed  on  the  family- 
plan,  by  which  all  members  of  the  family  per- 
form the  labor,  and  whatever  incidental  help  is 
employed  will  become  for  the  time  a  part  of  the 
family.  This  will  probably  continue  to  be  the 
rule.  But  we  must  face  the  fact,  however,  that 
a  necessary  result  of  the  organization  of  coun- 
try life  and  the  specialization  of  its  industries, 
that  is  now  so  much  urged,  will  be  the  production 
of  a  laboring  class  by  itself. 


142    The  Country-Life  Movement 

Supervision  in  farm  labor. 

It  is  doubtful  whether  we  shall  extend  the 
industrial  organization  of  labor  to  the  open 
country,  and  yet  there  should  be  some  way  of 
administering  farm  labor.  The  growth  of  the 
tendency  to  coordinate  farming  industries,  in 
order  to  overcome  the  disastrous  effects  of  much 
of  the  competitive  farming,  will  allow  for  super- 
vision of  labor,  however,  and  will  make  for 
efficiency.  The  standardizing  of  agricultural 
practice  will  also  do  much  to  produce  the  com- 
munity mind  that  is  so  much  desired  (p.  97).  On 
this  line.  Dean  H.  E.  Cook,  who  has  given  much 
thought  to  labor  questions,  writes  me  as  follows: 

"  The  production  of  iron,  paper,  and  manu- 
factured products  generally  has  been  standard- 
ized, and  the  cost  laid  down  in  the  market  is 
well  known,  and  therefore  placed  squarely  on  a 
cash  basis.  Directly  the  opposite  is  the  case  in 
the  manufacture  of  farm  crops,  and  so  we  find 
the  family  to  be  the  farm  crop-producers.  The 
wife  and  the  children  are  a  part  of  the  working 
force  of  the  farm,  which  is  not  found  in  any 


Point  of  View  on  Labor  Problem   143 

other  industry.  In  fact,  our  laws  are  very  rigid 
in  preventing  the  employment  of  women  and 
children  in  nearly  every  class  of  work,  except 
on  the  farm.  We  find  no  provision  by  statute 
or  moral  sentiment  which  says  that  the  farmer 
must  not  employ  his  eight-  or  ten-year-old  boy, 
as  is  very  often  the  case,  in  most  laborious 
tasks.  This  state  of  affairs  is  not  the  desire  of 
the  farmer,  but  has  become  a  necessity  because 
of  the  very  low  prices  for  his  products,  occa- 
sioned by  the  intense  competition  of  the  rapidly 
extending  area.  Our  government  has  taken 
every  means  within  its  grasp  to  populate  these 
large  areas  of  cheap  rich  land.  Of  course  it 
meant  wealth  to  the  nation,  but  it  meant  poverty 
to  those  who  had  established  homes  and  invest- 
ments in  the  older  sections. 

"  Our  methods,  unlike  other  manufacturers 
and  producers,  are  not  standardized.  That  is, 
we  find  in  every  community  persons  having 
each  his  own  conception  of  soil-handling,  crop- 
growing,  and  marketing.  In  a  single  locality 
can  be  found  an  endless  variety  of  corn,  as  an 
illustration.     Especially  is  this  true  in  the  East. 


144    T^^^  Country-Life  Movement 

Surely  corn  growing  fourteen  feet  high  and 
corn  growing  six  feet  high  are  not  calculated  to 
bring  the  same  results.  The  farmers  themselves 
are  unlike.  I  suppose  we  are  distantly  removed 
from  the  time  when  we  shall  have  a  uniform 
type  of  men  and  women  bred  for  the  farm.  It 
seems  to  me  that  methods  which  would  unify 
or  standardize  our  practices  and  prices — within 
certain  limitations,  to  be  sure  —  would  tend  to 
unify  the  tendencies  and  the  type  of  the  people. 
"  In  our  present  state  of  undevelopment  or 
adjustment,  I  do  not  think  it  is  possible 
profitably  to  pursue  the  production  of  crops 
with  employed  labor,  such  as  we  find  in 
our  manufacturing  establishments ;  and  it  may 
be  debatable  whether  that  plan  would  be  an 
improvement,  so  far  as  the  social  life  is  con- 
cerned, over  the  present  family-plan,  although 
I  firmly  believe  that  the  time  is  approaching 
when  the  profits  of  the  business  will  warrant  a 
cash  payment  for  everything  done  on  the  farm. 
As  a  connecting  link  between  the  family-plan 
and  the  future  cash-plan,  it  seems  to  me  we 
ought   to    take    on   in  each  neighborhood  the 


Point  of  View  on  Labor  Problem   145 

same  methods  of  supervision  that  are  now 
employed  in  the  factories.  One  man  of  skill 
and  adaptability  supervises  the  work  of  many. 
In  agriculture  we  have  but  one  illustration  of 
this  principle,  namely,  our  butter  and  cheese 
factories,  where  one  man  has  in  charge  the 
manufacturing  of  the  milk  of  many.  I  think 
we  could  profitably  use  a  similar  agency  in 
trucking,  soil-handling,  crop-growing,  animal- 
feeding,  and  general  farm-management.  Fur- 
thermore, we  are  more  in  need,  as  the  writer  sees 
it,  of  this  standardizing  or  cooperation  in  farm- 
management,  than  we  are  in  the  manufacture  of 
milk  products.  This  plan  would  use  the  family 
as  a  unit  of  labor  on  the  farm,  with  the  attendant 
light  risk,  or  no  risk  at  all ;  and  in  case  of  fail- 
ure of  crops  of  having  to  pay  cash  for  the  labor. 
"  The  cow-test  association  is  a  part  of  this 
general  plan  of  local  supervision.  I  can  fore- 
see how  there  may  come  out  of  this  cow-test 
movement,  a  growth  which  will  mean  just  what 
I  have  tried  to  outline.  The  man  who  does 
nothing  now  but  the  testing  of  the  milk  from 
each  cow  may  develop  into  an  expert  who  will 


146    The  Country-Life  Movement 

give  advice  on  soils,  crops,    cow-feeding,    and 
other  things  (page  123). 

"  When  the  communities  around  certain 
natural  centers,  as  the  cheese  factories  or  cream- 
eries in  dairy  sections,  perhaps  a  small  hamlet 
in  trucking  sections,  have  become  thoroughly 
organized  or,  more  properly  speaking,  standard- 
ized, we  shall  find  it  comparatively  easy  to 
bring  a  number  of  these  local  units  together, 
because  the  individuals  who  form  a  part  of  the 
movement  have  learned  the  true  principles 
underlying  cooperation.  Until  these  local 
units  are  worked  out,  in  my  opinion  we  shall 
never  be  able  to  form  any  great  cooperative 
movement  which  will  not  break  of  its  own 
weight,  because  of  a  lack  of  anneahng  processes." 

What  is  the  farmer  to  do  ? 

"  How  may  I  secure  labor?"  is  probably  the 
most  persistent  question  now  asked  by  farmers ; 
but  it  is  a  question  that  cannot  be  answered, 
any  more  than  one  may  tell  another  what  crops 
he  shall  grow,  what  markets  he  shall  find,  or 
what  manner  of  house  he  shall  build.     This  is 


Point  of  View  on  Labor  Problem   147 

one  of  the  great  problems  of  farming,  as  it  is 
of  engineering,  of  the  building  trades,  and  of 
factories.  Each  farmer  must  work  it  out  for 
himself,  as  he  works  out  the  problem  of  fertility 
and  machinery.  He  must  work  far  ahead,  and 
consider  it  as  a  part  of  all  his  plans. 

In  many  or  most  cases,  it  resolves  itself  into 
a  question  of  personality,  —  of  making  a  place 
that  is  worth  while  to  a  good  man  and  then  of 
the  farmer  interesting  himself  in  the  man.  One 
can  now  hardly  expect  to  secure  labor  on  demand 
for  brief  periods,  for  the  scheme  of  things  is 
more  and  more  in  the  direction  of  continuous 
employment ;  and  the  old  range  of  prices  cannot 
hold.  If  the  farmer's  scale  of  business  is  small 
and  operates  only  for  a  part  of  a  year,  he  cannot 
expect  to  secure  the  best  and  most  reliable  help. 

The  farmer  will  find  increasing  aid  from 
public  labor-distributing  bureaus,  for  these 
agencies  must  extend  with  the  extension  of 
population  and  the  complexity  of  industry.  In 
time,  the  state  and  nation  will  provide  com- 
petent machinery  for  placing  working-men 
where  they  can  best  serve  themselves  and  so- 


148    The  Country-Life  ^ 

ciety,  thus    relieving  both    emp 
ployed  from  much  waste  of  effc 
labor  is  not  a  separate  difficulty,  IN^- 

will   tend  to  better  and  better  sol  along 

with  the  rest.  If  the  distributing  t  ncies  are 
not  now  wholly  satisfactory,  the  f  aer  must 
recognize  that  they  are  only  beginnin  and  that 
he  should  cooperate  with  them.  The  )roblern 
of  utilizing  the  immigrant,  for  exampi  ,  is  one 
of  distribution;  but  distribution  is  really  not 
accomplished  merely  by  sending  a  certain  num- 
ber of  immigrants  to  a  certain  number  of  places, 
—  immigrant  and  employer  must  find  the  situ- 
ation to  be  mutually  satisfactory. 

Any  effort  which  assumes  that  labor  must 
necessarily  come  to  the  old-type  farm,  is  only 
temporary.  The  farm  must  readjust  itself  to 
meet  the  labor  problem.  In  the  meantime, 
through  the  labor  bureaus,  by  looking  long 
ahead,  by  organizing  a  labor  club  in  the  com- 
munity, by  some  person  acting  as  a  labor  agent 
and  supplying  farmers  as  they  need,  by  trying 
to  make  a  year-round  activity  in  the  neighbor- 
hood, the  situation  may  be  met  more  or  less. 


*J  oir 

THE    lillDDLEMAN    QUESTION 

To  m^  ^e  farming  profitable  is  no  longer  a 
questioi",  (dierely  of  raising  more  produce.  We 
have  p?{  fed  that  point.  We  now  have  knowl- 
edge an-a  experience  enough  to  enable  us  greatly 
to  increase  our  yields,  if  only  we  put  the  knowl- 
edge into  practice. 

Farmer  does  not  get  his  share. 

But  the  farmer,  speaking  broadly,  does  not 
get  his  share  of  the  proceeds  of  his  labor,  not- 
withstanding the  increase  in  the  price  of  farm 
products.  A  few  farmers  here  and  there,  pro- 
ducing a  superior  article  and  favored  by  loca- 
tion or  otherwise,  can  be  quite  independent  of 
marketing  systems ;  but  the  larger  number  of 
farmers  never  can  be  so  situated,  and  they  must 
grow  the  staples,  and  they  are  now  at  the 
mercy  of  many  intermediaries.  The  farmer's 
risks,  to  say  nothing  of  his  investment  and  his 

149 


150    The  Country-Life  Movement 

labor,  are  not  sufficiently  taken  into  account  in 
our  scheme  of  business,  —  risks  of  bad  years, 
storm,  frost,  flood,  disease  to  stock  and  crop, 
and  many  things  over  which  he  has  practically 
no  control. 

A  merchant  in  a  small  city  may  want  as  much 
as  twenty  per  cent  commission  to  sell  produce, 
and  then  retain  the  privilege  of  returning  to  the 
grower  all  the  product  that  spoils  on  his  hands 
or  that  he  is  unable  to  sell ;  he  invests  little 
capital,  takes  no  risk,  and  makes  more  than 
the  man  who  buys  his  land,  prepares  the  crop 
months  in  advance,  and  assumes  every  risk 
from  seed-time  to  dinner-table.  I  am  citing 
this  case  not  to  say  that  it  is  a  subject  for 
public  control  nor  even  to  assert  that  the  mer- 
chant's commission  is  intrinsically  too  great,  but 
only  to  illustrate  the  disadvantage  in  which  the 
farmer  often  finds  himself;  and  the  farmer  may 
even  have  no  escape  from  this  disadvantage,  for 
all  the  merchants  within  his  market  region  may 
agree  to  sell  his  produce  only  on  such  terms, 
and  he  may  be  obliged  to  accept  these  terms 
or  not  to  sell  his  wares. 


The  Middleman  Question        151 

The  manufacturer  knows  the  cost  of  his 
products  and  charges  his  price.  The  farmer 
usually  does  not  know  the  cost,  and  in  general 
he  makes  no  selling  price  ;  the  prices  of  his 
staple  produce  are  made  for  him. 

That  the  producer  does  not  secure  his  pro- 
portionate share  of  the  selling  price  in  many 
products  is  a  matter  of  the  commonest  knowl- 
edge, and  much  study  has  been  made  of  the 
question.  If  the  question  is  put  in  another  way, 
the  consumer  pays  too  great  a  margin,  in  great 
numbers  of  cases,  over  the  cost  of  production. 
The  following  press  item,  coming  to  my  hand 
as  I  write,  is  an  example  (given  for  what  it  is 
worth),  although  not  extreme  :  "  The  govern- 
ment of  New  York,  and  not  the  government 
in  "Washington,  is  where  the  people  of  this 
city  must  look,  if  they  expect  to  see  re- 
duction in  living  expenses.  A  bushel  of  beans, 
for  which  the  producer  in  Florida  receives 
^2.25,  with  the  transportation  50  cents  for  the 
860-mile  haul,  should  not  cost  the  New  York 
j^onsumer  $6.40  a  bushel.  The  producer  re- 
Jr  ceiv^M^  per  cent  of  the  final  price,  the  trans- 


152    The  Country-Life  Movement 

porter  8  per  cent,  and  the  dealers  57  per  cent. 
This  is  not  a  fair  division.  The  problem  is 
not  one  of  trusts,  tariffs,  and  other  Washington 
matters,  but  simply  one  of  providing  straight 
and  cheap  ways  open  from  all  gardens  and 
farms  to  kitchens  and  tables." 

The  poorer  the  country  or  the  less  fore- 
handed the  people,  the  harder  is  the  pinch  of 
the  usurer  and  the  trader,  and  all  the  machinery 
of  trade  is  likely  to  be  manipulated  against  the 
defenseless  man  who  stands  stolidly  between 
the  handles  of  the  plow. 

Of  course,  such  conditions  do  not  obtain 
with  all  products.  In  some  of  the  great  sta- 
ples, as  wheat,  the  cost  of  transportation  and 
commissions  is  often  reduced  by  competition 
and  scientific  handling  to  probably  its  lowest 
terms.  But  that  there  are  abuses  and  extor- 
tions, and  remediable  conditions,  in  the  middle- 
man system  —  by  which  I  mean  collectively  all 
traders  between  producer  and  consumer  —  no 
one  will  attempt  to  deny.  The  farmer  cannot 
rise  to  his  proper  place  until  the  stones  are 
taken  off  his  back. 


The  Middleman  Question        153 

The  abuses  must  be  checked  and  discrimina- 
tions removed,  whether  in  the  middleman  trade 
itself,  rates  of  express  companies  and  other  car- 
riers, or  stock-market  gambling.  The  middle- 
man system  has  had  a  free  field  to  play  in,  the 
wealth  of  the  country  to  handle ;  it  has  exercised 
its  license,  and  in  too  many  cases  it  has  become 
parasitic,  either  protected  by  law  and  custom 
or  unreachable  by  law  or  custom.  It  is  a  shame 
that  our  economic  machinery  is  not  capable  of 
handling  the  situation. 

Relation  of  the  question  to  cost-of-living. 

It  is  customary  just  now  to  attribute  the 
high  cost  of  living  to  lessened  production  due 
to  a  supposed  decline  of  agriculture,  and  to  ad- 
vise, therefore,  that  more  persons  engage  in 
farming  for  the  purpose  of  increasing  the  prod- 
uct. This  position  is  met  by  an  editorial  of 
the  New  York  Tribune,  which  holds  that 
intermediary  trading  combinations  are  respon- 
sible : 

"It  is  true  that  the  raising  of  cattle  for 
the  market  has  almost  ceased  in  the  East  and 


154    The  Country-Life  Movement 

that  agriculture  generally  has  not  kept  pace 
with  the  demand  for  food  products.  Yet  it  is 
hard  to  believe  that  agriculture  in  any  part  of 
the  Union  would  steadily  decline  in  the  face  of 
an  enormous  appreciation  of  the  cost  to  the 
consumer  of  all  farm  products,  were  there  not 
some  powerful  disturbing  factor  operating  to 
deny  the  farmer  the  benefits  of  that  apprecia- 
tion. If  the  Eastern  farmer  could  have  reaped 
a  legitimate  share  of  the  increase  in  the  price 
of  farm  produce  which  has  taken  place  in  the 
last  twenty  years,  he  would  certainly  be  in  posi- 
tion to  command  all  the  labor  he  needs  and  to 
develop  resources  now  neglected  because  it 
does  not  pay  to  develop  them.  Under  normal 
conditions  economic  law  would  certainly  drive 
labor  and  energy  into  a  field  of  production  in 
which  there  had  been  the  greatest  relative  ex- 
pansion in  the  selling  price  of  products. 

"  Yet  economic  law  has  not  operated  to  stim- 
ulate agriculture,  because  the  returns  from  stead- 
ily mounting  prices  have  not  really  reached  the 
producer.  Thirty  years  ago  the  fattening  of 
steers  for  the  local  markets  was  common  in  the 


The  Middleman  Question        155 

East.  But  when  the  vast  Western  ranges  were 
opened,  and  the  great  packing  houses  were 
established,  the  cheapness  of  range  beef,  refrig- 
erated and  delivered  in  Eastern  cities,  was  used 
as  a  weapon  to  kill  off  the  cattle  industry  of 
the  East.  When  the  Eastern  cattleman  was 
driven  out  of  business,  the  price  of  beef  rose, 
but  virtually  all  the  increase  has  gone  to  the 
packing  combinations,  which  fix  their  own  price 
to  the  Western  range  man  and  their  own  price 
to  the  consumer  and  artificially  control  the  sup- 
ply so  as  to  discourage  increased  production  in 
the  West  and  to  prevent  a  revival  of  produc- 
tion in  the  East.  The  country  is  growing  in 
population  at  the  rate  of  twenty  to  twenty-five 
per  cent  each  decade.  But  Secretary  Wilson 
has  shown  that  the  supply  of  food  animals  is 
not  being  maintained  in  proportion  to  popula- 
tion. In  the  last  decade  cattle  have  remained 
about  stationary  in  numbers,  swine  are  actually 
decreasing,  and,  while  more  sheep  are  available, 
the  supply  has  diminished  relatively  to  popu- 
lation. 

"It  can  hardly  be  contended  that  with  stead- 


156    The  Country-Life  Movement 

ily  diminishing  supplies  and  steadily  increasing 
prices  the  law  of  supply  and  demand  would  not 
work  out  a  new  balance,  stimulating  production 
through  easy  profits,  were  there  no  artificial  in- 
terception of  the  producer's  normal  share  of  the 
advance  in  price.  Were  there  a  free  market  for 
the  Eastern  raiser  of  stock,  milk,  and  food 
products  generally,  with  the  middleman's  com- 
missions properly  restricted.  Eastern  farming 
would  probably  be  profitable  enough  to  hold 
its  own  against  manufacturing  and  to  com- 
pete successfully  with  the  manufacturer  for 
labor." 

The  farmer^ s  part. 

Of  course,  it  is  necessary  to  teach  every 
farmer  how  to  grow  more  crops,  for  this  is  his 
business,  and  it  also  enlarges  his  personal  am- 
bition and  extends  his  power  and  responsibil- 
ity ;  but  merely  to  grow  the  crops  will  not 
avail,  —  this  is  only  the  beginning  of  the  prob- 
lem :  the  products  must  be  distributed  and 
marketed  in  such  a  way  that  the  one  who  ex- 
pends the  eflfort  to  produce  them  shall  receive 


The  Middleman  Question        157 

enough  of  the  return  to  identify  him  with  the 
effort.  Thereafter,  social  and  moral  results 
will  follow. 

The  middleman's  part. 

I  recognize  the  service  of  the  middleman 
to  society.  I  know  that  the  distributor  and 
trader  are  producers  of  wealth  as  well  as  those 
who  raise  the  raw  materials ;  but  this  is  no 
justification  for  abuses.  I  know  that  there 
are  hosts  of  perfectly  honest  and  dependable 
middlemen.  We  do  not  yet  know  whether 
the  existing  system  of  intermediary  distribu- 
tors and  sellers  is  necessary  to  future  society, 
but  we  do  not  see  any  other  practicable  way 
at  present.  In  special  cases,  the  farmer  may 
reach  his  own  customer ;  but  this  condition, 
as  I  have  suggested,  is  so  small  in  proportion 
to  the  whole  number  of  farmers  as  not  greatly 
to  affect  the  general  situation.  We  do  not 
yet  see  any  way  whereby  all  farmers  can  be  so 
organized  as  to  enable  them  to  control  all 
their  own  marketing.  Therefore,  we  must 
recognize  middleman-practice  as  legitimate. 


158    The  Country-Life  Movement 

A  system  of  economic  waste. 

But  even  though  we  yet  see  no  way  of  general 
escape  from  the  system,  we  ought  to  provide 
some  means  of  regulating  its  operation.  Th<^ 
present  method  of  placing  agricultural  produce 
in  the  hands  of  the  consumer  is  for  the  most 
part  indirect  and  wasteful.  Probably  in  the  ma- 
jority of  cases  of  dissatisfaction,  the  person  whom 
we  call  the  middleman  does  not  receive  any  ex- 
orbitant profit,  but  the  cost  of  the  commodities 
is  piled  up  by  a  long  and  circuitous  system  of 
intermediate  tolls  and  commissions. 

Cooperation  of  farmers  will  not  solve  it. 

It  is  commonly  advised  that  farmers  "  unite  " 
or  "organize"  to  correct  middleman  and  trans- 
portation abuses,  but  these  troubles  cannot  be 
solved  by  any  combination  of  farmers,  because 
this  is  not  an  agricultural  question.  It  is  as 
much  a  problem  for  consumers  as  for  pro- 
ducers. It  is  a  part  of  the  civilization  of  our 
day,  completely  woven  into  the  fabric  of  our 
economic   system.     The    farmer    may  feel    its 


The  Middleman  Question        159 

hardship  first  because  he  must  bear  it,  while 
the  consumer,  to  meet  higher  prices,  demands 
more  pay  of  his  employer  or  takes  another 
stitch  out  of  somebody  else.  But  it  is  essen- 
tially a  problem  for  all  society  to  solve,  not  for 
farmers  alone,  particularly  when  it  operates  on 
a  continental  basis.  This  also  indicates  the 
futility  of  the  arbitrary  control  of  prices  of 
the  great  staples  by  combinations  of  farmers 
(page  126). 

Of  course,  temporary  or  local  relief  may  be 
secured  by  organizations  of  producers  here  and 
there,  or  of  consumers  here  and  there  (probably 
consumers  can  attack  the  problem  more  effec- 
tively than  producers),  and  by  the  establishment 
of  public  markets ;  but  no  organization  can 
permanently  handle  the  question  unless  the 
organization  is  all  the  people. 

The  present  agitations  against  middleman 
practices  and  stock-market  gambling  ought  to 
compel  Congress  to  pass  laws  to  correct  the 
evils  that  are  correctable  by  law,  and  the  or- 
ganizations then  should  keep  such  touch  on 
the  situation  that  the  laws  will  be  enforced. 


i6o    The  Country-Life  Movement 

It  has  been  suggested  that  the  superabun- 
dant middlemen  go  into  farming ;  but  no  one 
can  compel  them  to  go  to  farming,  and  they 
might  not  be  successful  farmers  if  they  should 
attack  the  business,  and  the  farming  country 
might  not  need  them  or  profit  by  them,  —  for 
it  is  not  demonstrated  that  we  need  more 
farmers,  although  it  is  apparent  that  we  need 
better  farmers. 

It  is  the  business  of  government. 

It  is  the  business  of  any  government  to  pro- 
tect its  people.  Governments  have  protected 
their  countries  from  invasion  and  war,  but  the 
greatest  office  of  government  in  modern  times 
is  to  develop  its  own  people  and  the  internal 
resources  of  its  realm.  We  are  beginning  to 
protect  the  people  from  the  over-lording  of 
railroads,  from  unfair  combinations  in  trade, 
and  from  the  tyranny  of  organized  politicians. 
It  is  just  as  much  the  business  of  government 
to  protect  its  people  from  dishonest  and  tyran- 
nous middlemen  lying  beyond  the  practical 
reach  of  individuals.     The  situation  has  arisen 


The  Middleman  Question       i6i 

because  of  lack  of  control ;  there  is  no  con- 
spiracy against  the  farmer. 

It  is  said  that  competition  will  in  the  end 
correct  the  middleman  evil,  but  competition 
does  not  correct  it ;  and  competition  alone, 
under  the  present  structure  of  society,  will 
not  correct  it  in  most  cases  because  "  agree- 
ments "  between  traders  restrict  or  remove  com- 
petition :  the  situation  does  not  have  within 
itself  the  remedies  for  its  own  ills. 

When  we  finally  eliminate  combinations  in 
restraint  of  trade,  the  middleman  abuses  may 
be  in  the  process  of  passing  out.  It  is  to  check 
dishonesty  on  the  one  hand  and  to  allow  real 
competition  on  the  other  that  I  am  now  mak- 
ing suggestions. 

Must  be  a  continuing  process  of  control. 

I  have  no  suggestion  to  make  as  to  the  nature 
of  the  laws  themselves.  There  are  many  diverse 
situations  to  be  met ;  and  I  intentionally  do  not 
make  my  remarks  specific.  Of  course,  any  law 
that  really  attempts  to  reach  the  case  must  recog- 
nize the  middleman  as  exercising  a  public  or  semi- 


1 62    The  Country-Life  Movement 

public  function,  and  that,  as  such,  he  is  amen- 
able to  control,  even  beyond  the  point  of  mere 
personal  honesty.  The  licensing  of  middlemen 
(a  practice  that  might  be  carried  much  further, 
and  which  is  a  first  step  in  reform)  recognizes 
this  status ;  and  if  it  is  competent  for  govern- 
ment to  license  a  middleman,  it  is  also  compe- 
tent for  it  to  exercise  some  oversight  over  him. 
It  is  not  necessary  that  government  declare 
an  agency  a  monopoly  in  order  to  regulate  it. 
Commercial  situations  that  unmistakably  involve 
service  to  the  public  are  proper  for  governmental 
control  in  greater  or  lesser  degree.  The  super- 
vision of  weights  and  measures  is  a  good  be- 
ginning in  the  regulation  of  middleman  trading. 
But  the  enactment  of  laws,  even  of  good 
laws,  is  only  another  step  in  the  solution.  A 
law  does  not  operate  itself,  and  the  common 
man  cannot  resort  to  courts  of  law  to  secure 
justice  in  such  cases  as  these.  There  must  be 
a  continuing  process  of  government  with  which  to 
work  out  the  reform  and  to  adjust  each  case  on  its 
merits.  Whatever  the  merits  of  the  laws,  their 
success  lies  in  the  continuing  application  of  them 


The  Middleman  Question       163 

to  specific  cases  by  persons  whose  business  it  is 
to  discern  the  facts  rather  than  to  prove  a  case. 

There  are  three  steps  in  the  control  of  the 
middleman:  (i)  an  aroused  public  conscience 
on  the  question;  (2)  good  fundamental  laws 
for  interstate  phases  and  similar  state  laws  for 
local  phases ;  (3)  good  commissions  or  other 
agencies  or  bodies  to  which  any  producer  or 
consumer  or  middleman  may  take  his  case,  and 
which  may  exercise  regulatory  functions.  The 
interstate  commerce  commission  has  jurisdiction 
over  so  much  of  the  problem  as  relates  to  the 
service  and  rates  of  common  carriers  ;  no  doubt, 
its  powers  could  be  extended  to  other  interstate 
phases.  Perhaps  departments  of  agriculture,  in 
states  in  which  public  service  commissions  have 
not  been  established,  could  be  given  sufficient 
scope  to  handle  some  of  the  questions. 

Of  course,  some  of  the  middlemen  and  asso- 
ciated traders  will  contend  that  all  this  interferes 
with  business  and  with  private  rights,  but  no 
man  has  a  private  right  to  oppress  or  defraud 
another  or  to  deprive  him  of  his  proper  rewards  ; 
and  we  must  correct  a  faulty  economic  system. 


164    The  Country-Life  Movement 

There  is  little  danger  that  the  legitimate  business 
of  any  honest  middleman  will  be  interfered  with. 

I  know  that  commissions  and  similar  bodies 
have  not  always  been  wholly  successful.  This 
is  because  we  have  not  yet  had  experience 
enough,  have  not  consciously  trained  our  peo- 
ple for  this  kind  of  work,  and  have  not  been 
able  to  make  water-tight  laws.  Neither  do 
older  systems  now  prove  to  be  adequate. 
New  economic  conditions  must  bring  new 
methods  of  regulation  and  control. 

I  have  no  desire  that  society  (or  government) 
engage  in  the  middleman  business  or  that  it 
take  over  private  enterprise ;  but  no  govern- 
ment can  expect  to  throw  back  on  the  producer 
the  responsibility  of  controlling  the  middleman. 
I  look  for  the  present  agitation  to  awaken  gov- 
ernment to  the  necessity  of  doing  what  it  is 
plainly  its  duty  to  do.  In  future,  a  government 
that  will  not  protect  its  people  in  those  cases 
in  which  the  people,  acting  to  the  best  of  their 
individual  and  cooperating  capacity,  cannot  pro- 
tect themselves,  will  be  known  as  either  a  bad 
government  or  an  undeveloped  government. 


COUNTY  AND    LOCAL   FAIRS 

Much  is  said  about  the  necessity  of  redirect- 
ing rural  institutions.  The  fairs  are  mentioned 
among  the  rest.  I  shall  now  indicate  an  experi- 
ment that  might  be  tried  with  existing  county  and 
local  fairs,  not  only  as  a  suggestion  for  the  fairs 
themselves,  but  as  an  illustration  of  how  com- 
pletely it  is  possible  to  reconstruct  an  institu- 
tion that  is  long  established  in  conventional 
methods. 

I  do  not  think  a  fair  that  carries  only  one  or 
two  weeks*  interest  during  the  year  is  justifiable ; 
but  of  this  aspect  of  the  question  I  am  not  now 
speaking. 

Nature  of  the  fair. 

The  county  fair  has  not  changed  its  general 
basis  of  operation  in  recent  years,  and  yet  the 
basis  of  country  life  is  changing  rapidly.  Many 
fairs  are  doing  excellent  work  and  are  worth 
to  the  people  all  that  they  cost  in  effort  and 

i6s 


1 66    The  Country-Life  Movement 

money ;  but  the  whole  plan  of  the  county  fair 
is  insufficient  for  the  epoch  that  we  are  now 
entering.  I  should  not  discontinue  the  local 
fairs :  I  should  make  them  over. 

The  fairs  have  been  invaded  by  gambling, 
and  numberless  catch-penny  and  amusement 
and  entertainment  features,  many  of  which  are 
very  questionable,  until  they  often  become  great 
country  medleys  of  acrobats  and  trained  bears 
and  high-divers  and  gew-gaws  and  balloon 
ascensions  and  side-shows  and  professional  trav- 
eling exhibitors  and  advertising  devices  for  all 
kinds  of  goods.  The  receipts  are  often  meas- 
ured by  the  number  of  cheap  vaudeville  and 
other  "attractions"  that  the  fair  is  able  to 
secure.  And  as  these  things  have  increased, 
the  local  agricultural  interest  has  tended  to  drop 
out.  In  some  cases  the  state  makes  appropri- 
ations to  local  fairs ;  it  is  a  question  whether 
the  state  should  be  in  the  showman  business. 

I  should  like  to  see  one  experiment  tried 
somewhere  by  some  one,  designed  to  project 
a  bold  enterprise  on  a  new  foundation.  It 
would  first  be  necessary  to  eliminate  some  of 


County  and  Local  Fairs         167 

the  present  features,  and  then  to  add  a   con- 
structive program. 

Features  to  be  eliminated. 

I  should  eliminate  all  gate  receipts ;  all  horse 
trots ;  all  concessions  and  all  shows ;  all  dis- 
play of  ordinary  store  merchandise ;  all  sales 
of  articles  and  commodities;  and  all  money 
premiums. 

Constructive  program. 

Having  taken  out  the  obstructions,  unnec- 
essaries,  and  excrescences,  I  should  enter  on 
a  constructive  program.  I  should  then  begin 
to  make  a  fair.  I  assume  that  the  fact  of  a 
person  living  in  a  community,  places  on  him 
responsibilities  for  the  welfare  of  that  commu- 
nity. We  should  make  the  county  fair  one  of 
the  organized  means  of  developing  this  welfare. 
Therefore,  I  should  assume  that  every  citizen 
in  the  county,  by  virtue  of  his  citizenship,  is  a 
member  of  the  county  fair  and  owes  to  it  an 
allegiance. 

It  would  then  devolve  on  the  persons  who 


1 68    The  Country-Life  Moveme   : 

are  organizing  and  operating  the  work,  epre- 
senting  the  fair  association,  to  develop  i.i  him 
his  sense  of  allegiance  and  cooperation.  I 
should  not  discourage  any  citizen  of  the  county 
from  cooperating  in  the  enterprise,  or  allow 
him  to  escape  his  natural  responsibilities,  be- 
cause he  felt  himself  unable  or  unwilling  to 
pay  an  admission  fee,  any  more  than  I  should 
eliminate  any  person  because  of  religion,  poli- 
tics, color,  or  sex. 

The  financial  support. 

Of  course,  it  requires  money  to  run  a  fair. 
I  should  like  to  see  the  money  raised  by  vol- 
untary contribution  in  a  new  way.  I  should 
have  it  said  to  every  resident  in  the  county 
that  he  and  his  family  may  come  uninterrupt- 
edly to  the  fair  without  money  and  without 
price  ;  but  I  should  also  say  to  him  that  money 
is  needed,  and  that  all  those  persons  who  wish 
to  give  a  certain  sum  would  be  provided  with 
a  badge  or  receipt.  I  suspect  that  more  money 
could  be  more  easily  raised  in  this  way  than  by 
means  of  gate  receipts. 


^^   County  and  Local  Fairs         169 

P**5'iould  have  this  money  collected  in  ad- 
vance by  means  of  an  organized  effort  through 
all  the  schools  and  societies  in  the  county,  set- 
ting every  one  of  them  at  work  on  a  definite 
plan. 

Of  course,  the  state  or  other  agency  could 
contribute  its  quota  of  funds  as  theretofore. 

An  educational  basis. 

In  other  words,  I  should  like  to  see,  in  this 
single  experiment,  a  complete  transfer  from  the 
commercial  and  "  amusement "  phase  to  the 
educational  and  recreation  phase.  I  should  like 
to  see  the  county  fair  made  the  real  meeting 
place  for  the  country  folk.  I  should  make  a 
special  effort  to  get  the  children.  The  best 
part  of  the  fair  would  be  the  folks,  and  not  the 
machines  or  the  cattle,  although  these  also 
would  be  very  important.  I  should  make  the 
fair  one  great  picnic  and  gathering-place  and 
field-day,  and  bring  together  the  very  best 
elements  that  are  concerned  in  the  develop- 
ment of  country  life. 

I    should    work    through    every   organized 


170    The  Country-Life  Movement 

enterprise  in  the  county,  as  commercial  clubs, 
creameries,  cooperative  associations,  religious 
bodies,  fraternal  organizations,  insurance  so- 
cieties, schools,  and  whatever  other  organized 
units  already  may  exist. 

It  is  often  said  that  our  fairs  have  developed 
from  the  market-places  of  previous  times,  and 
are  historically  commercial.  We  know,  of 
course,  that  fairs  have  been  market-places,  and 
that  some  of  them  are  so  to  this  day  in  other 
countries.  I  doubt  very  much,  however, 
whether  the  history  is  correct  that  develops 
the  American  agricultural  fair  from  the  market- 
place fairs  of  other  countries.  From  the  time 
when  Elkanah  Watson  exhibited  his  merino 
sheep  in  the  public  square  of  Pittsfield,  Mas- 
sachusetts, in  1807,  in  order  that  he  might 
induce  other  persons  to  grow  sheep  as  good  as 
his,  and  when  the  state  of  New  York  started 
its  educational  program  in  18 19,  the  essence 
of  the  American  idea  has  been  that  a  fair  is  an 
educational  and  not  a  trading  enterprise.  But 
whatever  the  history,  the  agricultural  fair  main- 
tained by  public  money  owes  its  obligation  to  the 
people  and  not  to  commercial  interests. 


County  and  Local  Fairs         171 

Ask  every  person  to  prove  up. 

I  should  have  every  person  bring  and  ex- 
hibit what  he  considers  to  be  his  best  contri- 
bution to  the  development  of  a  good  country  life. 

One  man  would  exhibit  his  bushel  of  pota- 
toes ;  another  his  Holstein  bull ;  another  his 
pumpkin  or  his  plate  of  apples ;  another  a  pic- 
ture and  plans  of  his  modern  barn ;  another 
his  driving  team  ;  another  his  flock  of  sheep 
or  his  herd  of  swine ;  another  his  pen  of  poul- 
try ;  another  his  plan  for  a  new  house  or  a 
sanitary  kitchen,  or  for  the  installation  of 
water-supplies,  or  for  the  building  of  a  farm 
bridge,  or  the  improved  hanging  of  a  barn 
door,  or  for  a  better  kind  of  fence,  or  for  a 
new  kink  in  a  farm  harness,  or  the  exhibition 
of  tools  best  fitted  for  clay  land  or  sandy  land, 
and  so  on  and  on. 

The  woman  would  also  show  what  she  is 
contributing  to  better  conditions,  —  her  best 
handiwork  in  fabrics,  her  best  skill  in  cooking, 
her  best  plans  in  housekeeping,  her  best  ideas 
for  church  work  or  for  club  work. 


172    The  Country-Life  Movement 

The  children  would  show  their  pets,  what 
they  had  grown  in  the  garden,  what  they  had 
made  in  the  house  or  the  barn,  what  they  had 
done  in  the  school,  what  they  had  found  in  the 
woods. 

I  should  assume  that  every  person  living 
on  the  land  in  the  country  has  some  one  thing 
that  he  is  sure  is  a  contribution  to  better  farm- 
ing, or  to  better  welfare ;  and  he  should  be 
encouraged  to  exhibit  it  and  to  explain  it, 
whether  it  is  a  new  way  to  hang  a  hoe,  or  a 
herd  of  pure-bred  cattle,  or  a  plan  for  farmers' 
institutes.  I  should  challenge  every  man  to 
show  in  what  respect  he  has  any  right  to  claim 
recognition  over  his  fellows,  or  to  be  a  part  of 
his  community. 

I  should  ask  the  newspapers  and  the  agri- 
cultural press  to  show  up  their  work ;  also  the 
manufacturers  of  agricultural  implements  and 
of  country-life  articles  of  all  kinds. 

I  should  also  ask  the  organizations  to  prove 
up.  What  is  the  creamery  contributing  to  a 
better  country  life  ?  What  the  school  ?  The 
church  ?     The  grange  ?     The  cooperative  ex- 


County  and  Local  Fairs         173 

change  ?  The  farmers'  club  ?  The  reading 
club  ?  The  woman's  society  ?  The  literary 
circle?  The  library?  The  commercial  clubs? 
The  hunting  or  sportsman's  clubs? 

Sports f  contests y  and  pageants. 

I  should  give  much  attention  to  the  organi- 
zation of  good  games  and  sports,  and  I  should 
have  thes6  cooperative  between  schools,  or 
other  organizations,  such  organizations  having 
prepared  for  them  consecutively  during  the 
preceding  year.  I  should  introduce  good  con- 
tests of  all  kinds.  I  should  fill  the  fair  with 
good  fun  and  frolic. 

I  should  want  to  see  some  good  pageants 
and  dramatic  efforts  founded  on  the  industries, 
history,  or  traditions  of  the  region  or  at  least 
of  the  United  States.  It  would  not  be  impos- 
sible to  find  simple  literature  for  such  exercises 
even  now,  for  a  good  deal  has  been  written. 
By  song,  music,  speaking,  acting,  and  various 
other  ways,  it  would  not  be  difficult  to  get  all 
the  children  in  the  schools  of  the  county  at 
work.     In  the  old  days  of  the  school  "exhibi- 


1/4    The  Country-Life  Movement 

tion,"  something  of  this  spirit  prevailed.  It 
was  manifest  in  the  old  "  spelling  bees "  and 
also  in  the  "  lyceum."  We  have  lost  our 
rural  cohesion  because  we  have  been  attracted 
by  the  town  and  the  city,  and  we  have  allowed 
the  town  and  the  city  to  do  our  work.  I  think 
it  would  not  be  difficult  to  organize  a  pageant, 
or  something  of  the  kind,  at  a  county  fair,  that 
would  make  the  ordinary  vaudeville  or  side- 
show or  gim-crack  look  cheap  and  ridiculous 
and  not  worth  one's  while. 

Premiums, 

If  we  organize  our  fair  on  a  recreation  and 
educational  basis,  then  we  can  take  out  all 
commercial  phases,  as  the  paying  of  money 
premiums.  An  award  of  merit,  if  it  is  nothing 
more  than  a  certificate  or  a  memento,  would  then 
be  worth  more  than  a  hundred  dollars  in  money. 
So  far  as  possible,  I  should  substitute  coop- 
eration and  emulation  for  competition,  particu- 
larly for  competition  for  money. 

It  is  probable  that  the  fair  would  have  to 
assume  the  expense  of  certain  of  the  exhibits. 


County  and  Local  Fairs  175 

It  is  time  to  begin. 

This  kind  of  fair  is  not  only  perfectly  pos- 
sible, but  it  is  feasible  in  many  places,  if  only 
some  one  or  two  or  three  persons  possessed  of 
good  common  sense  and  of  leadership  would 
take  hold  of  the  thing  energetically.  One 
must  cut  himself  loose  from  preconceived 
notions  and  probably  from  the  regular  fair 
associations.  He  must  have  imagination,  and 
be  prepared  to  meet  discouragements.  He 
need  not  take  the  attitude  that  present  methods 
are  necessarily  all  bad ;  he  is  merely  concerned 
in  developing  a  new  thing. 

Because  I  should  not  have  horse  races  in 
my  fair,  I  do  not  wish  at  all  to  be  understood 
as  saying  that  horse  races  are  to  be  pro- 
hibited. Let  the  present  race  courses  in  the 
fair  grounds  be  used  for  horse  races,  if  the 
people  want  them.  We  have  June  races  now, 
and  they  could  be  held  at  other  times  of  the 
year  when  persons  who  are  interested  desire  to 
have  them.  My  point  is  that  they  are  not  an 
essential    part    of    a   county    agricultural    fair. 


176    The  Country-Life  Movement 

They  rest  on  a  money  basis,  and  do  not  rep- 
resent the  people.  Neither  do  I  say  that  all 
traveling  shows  and  concessions  are  bad ;  but 
most  of  them  are  out  of  place  in  a  county  fair 
and  contrary  to  its  spirit. 

If  the  horse  races  were  organized  for  the  pur- 
pose of  developing  the  horses  of  the  county, 
then  I  should  admit  them;  but  I  should  give 
them  only  their  proportionate  place  along  with 
other  means  of  developing  horse-stock,  —  as 
of  work  horses,  farm  horses,  draft  horses,  driv- 
ing horses. 

The  fair  ground. 

An  enterprise  of  the  kind  that  I  project 
need  not  necessarily  be  held  on  a  fair-ground 
of  the  present  type,  although  that  might  be  the 
best  place  for  it.  If  there  is  a  good  institution 
in  the  county  that  has  grounds,  and  especially 
that  has  an  agricultural  equipment  worthy  of 
observation,  I  should  think  that  the  best  re- 
sults would  be  secured  by  holding  the  fair  at 
that  place.  This  kind  of  a  fair  would  not  need  to 
be  inclosed  within  a  Chinese  wall.     Of  course. 


County  and  Local  Fairs  177 

there  would  have  to  be  buildings  and  booths 
and  stables  in  which  exhibitions  could  be  made. 
In  every  fair  there  should  nowadays  be  an 
assembly  hall  in  which  lectures,  exhibitions, 
simple  dramas,  worth-while  applicable  moving 
pictures,  and  other  entertainment  features  can 
be  given. 

My  plea. 

My  plea,  therefore,  is  that  some  one  some-  \ 
where  make  one  experiment  with  a  county  fair 
designed  to  bring  all  the  people  together  on  a 
wholly  new  idea.  The  present  basis  is  wrong 
for  this  twentieth  century.  The  old  needs  are 
passing;  new  needs  are  coming  in.  I  should 
have  the  fair  represent  the  real  substantial 
progress  of  rural  civilization,  and  I  should  also 
have  it  help  to  make  that  progress.  It  should 
be  a  power  in  its  community,  not  a  phenome- 
non that  passes  as  a  matter  of  course,  like  the 
phases  of  the  moon. 

I  do  not  expect  all  this  to  materialize  in  a 
day ;  but  I  want  to  set  a  new  picture  into  my 
readers'  minds. 


THE   COUNTRY-LIFE   PHASE   OF 
CONSERVATION 

The  conservation  movement  is  the  expres- 
sion of  the  idea  that  the  materials  and  agencies 
that  are  part  of  the  furniture  of  the  planet  are 
to  be  utilized  by  each  generation  carefully,  and 
with  real  regard  to  the  welfare  of  those  who  are 
to  follow  us.  The  country-life  movement  is 
the  expression  of  the  idea  that  the  policies, 
efforts,  and  material  well-being  of  the  open 
country  must  be  highly  sustained,  as  a  funda- 
mental essential  of  a  good  civilization ;  and  it 
recognizes  the  fact  that  rural  society  has  made 
relatively  less  progress  in  the  past  century  than 
has  urban  society.  Both  movements  are  imme- 
diately economic,  but  in  ultimate  results  they 
are  social  and  moral.  They  rest  on  the  assump- 
tion that  the  welfare  of  the  individual  man  and 
woman  is  to  be  conserved  and  developed,  and 
is  the  ultimate  concern  of  governments ;  both, 

178 


Country  Life  and  Conservation     179 

therefore,  are  phases  in  a  process  of  social 
evolution. 

These  are  the  twin  policies  of  the  Roosevelt 
administration,  an  economic  and  social  move- 
ment for  which  that  administration  will  be  first 
remembered  after  the  incidents  and  personalities 
of  the  time  have  lost  their  significance. 

Not  only  the  welfare  but  the  existence  of 
the  race  depends  on  utilizing  the  products 
and  forces  of  the  planet  wisely,  and  also  on 
securing  greater  quantity  and  variety  of  new 
products.  These  are  finally  the  most  fun- 
damental movements  that  government  has  yet 
attempted  to  attack ;  for  when  the  products 
of  the  earth  shall  begin  to  disappear  or  the  arm 
of  the  husbandman  to  lose  its  skill,  there  is  an 
end  to  the  office  of  government.  At  the  bot- 
tom, therefore,  the  conservation  and  country- 
life  movements  rest  on  the  same  premise ;  but 
in  their  operation  and  in  the  problems  that  are 
before  them  they  are  so  distinct  that  they  should 
not  be  confounded  or  united.  These  comple- 
mentary phases  may  best  work  themselves 
out  by  separate   organization   and   machinery. 


i8o    The  Country-Life  Movement 

although  articulating  at  every  point;  and  this 
would  be  true  if  for  no  other  reason  than  that  a 
different  class  of  persons,  and  a  different  method 
of  procedure,  attach  to  each  movement.  The 
conservation  movement  finds  it  necessary,  as 
a  starting-point,  to  attack  intrenched  property 
interests,  and  it  therefore  discovers  itself  in  poli- 
tics, inasmuch  as  these  interests  have  become 
intrenched  through  legislation.  The  country- 
life  movement  lacks  these  personal  and  political 
aspects,  and  proceeds  rather  on  a  broad  policy  of 
definite  education  and  of  redirection  of  imagi- 
nation. 

These  subjects  have  a  history. 

Neither  conservation  nor  country  life  is 
new  except  in  name  and  as  the  subject  of  an 
organized  movement.  The  end  of  the  original 
resources  has  been  foreseen  from  time  out  of 
mind,  and  prophetic  books  have  been  written 
on  the  subject.  ^The  need  of  a  quickened 
country  life  has  been  recognized  from  the  time 
I  that  cities  began  to  dominate  civilization ;  and 
the  outlook  of  the  high-minded  countryman  has 


Country  Life  and  Conservation     i8i 

been  depicted  from  the  days  of  the  classical 
writings  until  now.  On  the  side  of  mineral 
and  similar  resources,  the  geologists  amongst 
us  have  made  definite  efforts  for  conservation ; 
and  on  the  side  of  soil  fertility  the  agricultural 
chemists  and  the  teachers  of  agriculture  have 
for  a  hundred  years  maintained  a  perpetual 
campaign  of  conservation.  So  long  and  per- 
sistently have  those  persons  in  the  agricultural 
and  some  other  institutions  heard  these  ques- 
tions emphasized,  that  the  startling  assertions  of 
the  present  day  as  to  the  failure  of  our  resources 
and  the  coordinate  importance  of  rural  affairs 
with  city  affairs  have  not  struck  me  with  any 
force  of  novelty. 

But  there  comes  a  time  when  the  warnings 
begin  to  collect  themselves,  and  to  crystallize 
about  definite  points ;  and  my  purpose  in 
suggesting  this  history  is  to  emphasize  the  im- 
portance of  the  two  formative  movements 
now  before  us  by  showing  that  the  roots  run 
deep  back  into  human  experience.  It  is  no 
ephemeral  or  transitory  subject  that  we  are 
now  to  discuss. 


1 82    The  Country-Life  Movement 

They  are  not  party-politics  subjects. 

I  have  said  that  these  are  economic  and 
social  problems  and  policies.  I  wish  to  enlarge 
this  view.  They  are  concerned  with  saving, 
utilizing,  and  augmenting,  and  only  secondarily 
with  administration.  We  must  first  ascertain 
the  facts  as  to  our  resources,  and  from  this 
groundwork  impress  the  subject  on  the  people. 
The  subject  must  be  approached  by  scientific 
methods.  The  "  political "  phase,  although 
probably  necessary,  is  only  temporary,  till  we 
remove  impedimenta  and  clear  the  way. 

It  would  be  unfortunate  if  such  movement 
became  the  exclusive  program  of  a  political 
party,  for  then  the  question  would  become 
partisan  and  probably  be  removed  from  calm 
or  judicial  consideration,  and  the  opposition 
would  equally  become  the  program  of  a  party. 
Every  last  citizen  should  be  naturally  interested 
in  the  careful  utilization  of  our  native  materials 
and  wealth,  and  it  is  due  him  that  the  details 
of  the  question  be  left  open  for  unbiased  dis- 
cussion rather  than  to  be  made  the  arbitrary 


Country  Life  and  Conservation     183 

program,  either  one  way  or  another,  of  a  politi- 
cal organization.  Conservation  is  in  the  end 
a  plain  problem  involving  economic,  educational, 
and  social  situations,  rather  than  a  political  issue. 
The  country-life  movement  is  equally  a 
scientific  problem,  in  the  sense  that  it  must  be 
approached  in  the  scientific  spirit.  It  will  be 
inexcusable  in  this  day  if  we  do  not  go  at  the 
subject  with  only  the  desire  to  discover  the 
facts  and  to  arrive  at  a  rational  solution,  by 
non-political  methods. 

The  soil  is  the  greatest  of  all  resources. 

The  resources  that  sustain  the  race  are  of 
two  kinds, -^  those  that  lie  beyond  the  power 
of  man  to  reproduce  or  increase,  and  those  that 
may  be  augmented  by  propagation  and  by  care. 
The  former  are  the  mines  of  minerals,  metals, 
and  coal,  the  water,  the  air,  the  sunshine ;  the 
latter  are  the  Hving  resources,  in  crop  and  live- 
stock. 

Intermediate  between  the  two  classes  stands 
the  soil,  on  which  all  living  resources  depend. 
While  the  soil  is  part  of  the  mineral  and  earthy 


184    The  Country-Life  Movement 

resources  of  the  planet,  it  nevertheless  can  be 
increased  in  its  producing  power.  Even  after 
all  minerals  and  metals  and  coal  are  depleted, 
the  race  may  sustain  itself  in  comfort  and  prog- 
ress so  long  as  the  soil  is  productive,  provided, 
of  course,  that  water  and  air  and  sunshine  are 
still  left  to  us.  The  greatest  of  all  resources 
that  man  can  make  or  mar  is  the  soil.  Beyond 
all  the  mines  of  coal  and  all  the  precious  ores, 
this  is  the  heritage  that  must  be  most  carefully 
saved ;  and  this,  in  particular,  is  the  country- 
life  phase  of  the  conservation  movement. 

To  my  mind,  the  conservation  movement 
has  not  sufficiently  estimated  or  emphasized 
this  problem.  It  has  laid  stress,  I  know,  on 
the  enormous  loss  by  soil  erosion  and  has  said 
something  of  inadequate  agricultural  practice, 
but  the  main  question  is  yet  practically  un- 
touched by  the  movement,  —  the  plain  problem 
of  handling  the  soil  by  all  the  millions  who,  by 
skill  or  blundering  or  theft,  produce  crops  and 
animals  out  of  the  earth.  Peoples  have  gone 
down  before  the  lessening  fertility  of  the  land, 
and  in  all  probability  other  peoples  will  yet  go 


Country  Life  and  Conservation     185 

down.     The  course  of  empire  has  been  toward 
the  unplundered  lands. 

The  soil  crust. 

Thinner  than  a  skin  of  an  apple  is  the 
covering  of  the  earth  that  a  man  tills.  The 
marvelously  slight  layer  that  the  farmer  knows 
as  "  the  soil,"  supports  all  plants  and  all  men, 
and  makes  it  possible  for  the  globe  to  sustain 
a  highly  developed  life.  Beyond  all  calcula- 
tion and  all  comprehension  are  the  powers  and 
the  mysteries  of  this  soft  outer  covering  of  the 
earth.  For  all  we  know,  the  stupendous  mass 
of  materials  of  which  the  planet  is  composed 
is  wholly  dead,  and  only  on  the  surface  does 
any  nerve  of  life  quicken  it  into  a  living  sphere. 
And  yet,  from  this  attenuated  layer  have  come 
numberless  generations  of  giants  of  forests  and 
of  beasts,  perhaps  greater  in  their  combined 
bulk  than  all  the  soil  from  which  they  have 
come ;  and  back  into  this  soil  they  go,  until 
the  great  life  principle  catches  up  their  disor- 
ganized units  and  builds  them  again  into  beings 
as  complex  as  themselves. 


1 86    The  Country-Life  Movement 

The  general  evolution  of  this  soil  is  toward 
greater  powers ;  and  yet,  so  nicely  balanced  are 
these  powers  that  within  his  lifetime  a  man  may 
ruin  any  part  of  it  that  society  allows  him  to 
hold ;  and  in  despair  he  throws  it  back  to 
nature  to  reinvigorate  and  to  heal.  We  are 
accustomed  to  think  of  the  power  of  man  in 
gaining  dominion  over  the  forces  of  nature, — 
he  bends  to  his  use  the  expansive  powers  of 
steam,  the  energy  of  the  electric  current,  and 
he  ranges  through  space  in  the  light  that  he 
concentrates  in  his  telescope ;  but  while  he  is 
doing  all  this,  he  sets  at  naught  the  powers  in 
the  soil  beneath  his  feet,  wastes  them,  and  de- 
prives himself  of  vast  sources  of  energy.  Man 
will  never  gain  dominion  until  he  learns 
from  nature  how  to  maintain  the  augment- 
ing powers  of  the  disintegrating  crust  of  the 
earth. 

We  can  do  little  to  control  or  modify  the 
atmosphere  or  the  sunlight ;  but  the  epidermis 
of  the  earth  is  ours  to  do  with  it  much  as  we 
will.  It  is  the  one  great  earth-resource  over 
which  we  have  dominion.     The    soil   may  be 


Country  Life  and  Conservation     187 

made  better  as  well  as  worse,  more  as  well  as 
less ;  and  to  save  the  producing  powers  of  it  is 
far  and  away  the  most  important  consideration 
in  the  conservation  of  natural  resources. 

Unfortunately,  it  is  impossible  to  devise  a 
system  of  farm  accounting  that  shall  accurately 
represent  the  loss  in  producing  power  of  the 
land  (or  depreciation  in  actual  capital  stock). 
The  rising  sentiment  on  the  fertility  question 
is  just  now  reflected  in  the  proposal  to  ask 
Congress  and  the  states  to  make  it  a  mis- 
demeanor for  a  man  to  rob  his  land  and  to  lay 
out  for  him  a  farm  scheme.  This  is  a  chimeri- 
cal notion;  but  the  people  are  bound  to  ex- 
press themselves  unmistakably  in  some  way  on 
this  subject. 

Even  if  we  should  ultimately  find  that  crops 
do  not  actually  deplete  land  by  the  removal  of 
stored  plant-food  in  the  way  in  which  we  have 
been  taught,  it  is  nevertheless  true  that  poor 
management  ruins  its  productivity;  and  what- 
ever the  phrase  we  use  in  our  speaking  and 
writing,  we  shall  still  need  to  hold  the  land- 
usurer  to  account. 


1 88    The  Country- Life  Movement 

No  man  has  a  right  to  plunder  the  soil. 

The  man  who  tills  and  manages  the  soil 
owes  a  real  obligation  to  his  fellow-men  for  the 
use  that  he  makes  of  his  land ;  and  his  fellow- 
men  owe  an  equal  obligation  to  him  to  see 
that  his  lot  in  society  is  such  that  he  will  not 
be  obliged  to  rob  the  earth  in  order  to 
maintain  his  life.  The  natural  resources  of  the 
earth  are  the  heritage  and  the  property  of 
every  one  and  all  of  us.  A  man  has  no  moral 
right  to  skin  the  earth,  unless  he  is  forced  to 
do  it  in  sheer  self-defense  and  to  enable  him  to 
live  in  some  epoch  of  an  unequally  developed 
society ;  and  if  there  are  or  have  been  such 
social  epochs,  then  is  society  itself  directly 
responsible  for  the  waste  of  the  common  heri- 
tage. We  have  given  every  freeholder  the 
privilege  to  destroy  his  farm. 

The  man  who  plunders  the  soil  is  in  very 
truth  a  robber,  for  he  takes  that  which  is  not 
his  own,  and  he  withholds  bread  from  the 
mouths  of  generations  yet  to  be  born.  No 
man  really  owns  his  acres :  society  allows  him 


Country  Life  and  Conservation     189 

the  use  of  them  for  his  lifetime,  but  the  fee 
comes  back  to  society  in  the  end.  What,  then, 
will  society  do  with  those  persons  who  rob 
society  ?  The  pillaging  land-worker  must  be 
brought  to  account  and  be  controlled,  even 
as  we  control  other  offenders. 

I  have  no  socialistic  program  to  propose. 
The  man  who  is  to  till  the  land  must  be  edu- 
cated: there  is  more  need,  on  the  side  of  the 
public  welfare,  to  educate  this  man  than  any 
other  man  whatsoever  (page  2^)'  When  he 
knows,  and  his  obligations  to  society  are  quick- 
ened, he  will  be  ready  to  become  a  real  conserva- 
tor; and  he  will  act  energetically  as  soon  as  the 
economic  pressure  for  land-supplies  begins  to 
be  acute.  When  society  has  done  all  it  can 
to  make  every  farmer  a  voluntary  conservator 
of  the  fatness  of  the  earth,  it  will  probably  be 
obliged  to  resort  to  other  means  to  control  the 
wholly  incompetent  and  the  recalcitrant ;  at 
least,  it  will  compel  the  soil-robber  to  remove 
to  other  occupation,  if  economic  stress  does  not 
itself  compel  it.  We  shall  reach  the  time  when 
we  shall  not  allow  a  man  to  till  the  earth  unless 


190    The  Country-Life  Movement 

he  is  able  to  leave  it  at  least  as  fertile  as  he 
found  it. 

I  do  not  think  that  our  natural  soil  resources 
have  yet  been  greatly  or  permanently  depleted, 
speaking  broadly ;  and  such  depletion  as  has 
occurred  has  been  the  necessary  result  of  the 
conquest  of  a  continent.  But  a  new  situation 
will  confront  us,  now  that  we  see  the  end  of 
our  raw  conquest ;  and  the  old  methods  cannot 
hold  for  the  future.  The  conquest  has  pro- 
duced great  and  strong  folk,  and  we  have  been 
conserving  men  while  we  have  been  free  with 
our  resources.  In  the  future,  we  shall  produce 
strong  folk  by  the  process  of  thoroughness  and 
care. 

Ownership  vs.  conservation. 

This  discussion  leads  me  to  make  an  applica- 
tion to  the  conservation  movement  in  general. 
We  are  so  accustomed  to  think  of  privileged 
interests  and  of  corporation  control  of  resources 
that  we  are  likely  to  confuse  conservation  and 
company  ownership.  ^The  essence  of  conserva- 
tion is  to  utilize  our  resources  with  no  waste, 


Country  Life  and  Conservation     191 

and  with  an  honest  care  for  the  children  of  all 
the  generations.  But  we  state  the  problem  to 
be  the  reservation  of  our  resources  for  all  the 
people,  and  often  assume  that  if  all  the  resources 
were  in  private  ownership  the  problem  would 
thereby  be  solved ;  but,  in  fact,  the  conserva- 
tion question  is  one  thing  and  the  ownership 
of  property  quite  another.  A  corporation  may 
be  the  best  as  well  as  the  worst  conservator 
of  resources  ;  and  likewise,  private  or  individual 
ownership  may  be  the  very  worst  as  well  as  the 
best  conservator.  The  individual  owner,  repre- 
sented by  the  "  independent  farmer,"  may  be 
the  prince  of  monopolists,  even  though  his 
operations  compass  a  very  small  scale.  The 
very  fact  that  he  is  independent  and  that  he  is 
intrenched  behind  the  most  formidable  of  all 
barriers  —  private  property  rights  —  insure  his 
monopoly. 

In  the  interest  of  pure  conservation,  it  is  just 
as  necessary  to  control  the  single  men  as  the 
organized  men.  In  the  end,  conservation  must 
deal  with  the  separate  or  the  individual  man ; 
that  is,  with  a  person.     It  matters  not  whether 


192    The  Country-Life  Movement 

this  person  is  a  part  of  a  trust,  or  lives  alone  a 
hundred  miles  beyond  the  frontier,  or  is  the 
owner  of  a  prosperous  farm,  —  if  he  wastes  the 
heritage  of  the  race,  he  is  an  offender. 

We  are  properly  devising  ways  whereby  the 
corporation  holds  its  property  or  privileges  in 
trust,  returning  to  government  (or  to  society)  a 
fair  rental ;  that  is,  we  are  making  it  responsible 
to  the  people.  What  shall  we  do  with  the 
unattached  man,  to  make  him  also  responsible  .'' 
Shall  we  hold  the  corporate  plunderer  to  strict 
account,  and  let  the  single  separate  plunderer 
go  scot-free  ? 

The  philosophy  of  saving. 

The  conservation  of  natural  resources,  there- 
fore, resolves  itself  into  the  philosophy  of 
saving,  while  at  the  same  time  making  the 
most  and  best  progress  in  our  own  day.  We 
have  not  developed  much  consciousness  of  sav- 
ing when  we  deal  with  things  that  come  free  to 
our  hands,  as  the  sunshine,  the  rain,  the  forests, 
the  mines,  the  streams,  the  earth ;  and  the 
American  has  found  himself  so  much  in   the 


Country  Life  and  Conservation     193 

midst  of  plenty  that  saving  has  seemed  to  him 
to  be  parsimony,  or  at  least  beneath  his  atten- 
tion. As  a  question  of  morals,  however, 
conscientious  saving  represents  a  very  high  de- 
velopment. No  man  has  a  right  to  waste,  both 
because  the  materials  in  the  last  analysis  are  not 
his  own,  and  because  some  one  else  may  need 
what  he  wastes.  A  high  sense  of  saving  ought 
to  come  out  of  the  conservation  movement. 
This  will  make  directly  for  character-efficiency, 
since  it  will  develop  both  responsibility  and 
regard  for  others. 

The  irrigation  and  dry-farming  developments 
have  a  significance  far  beyond  their  value  in 
the  raising  of  crops  :  they  are  making  the  peo- 
ple to  be  conservators  of  water,  and  to  have  a 
real  care  for  posterity. 

Civilization,  thus  far,  is  built  on  the  process 
of  waste.  Materials  are  brought  from  forest, 
and  sea,  and  mine,  certain  small  parts  are  used, 
and  the  remainder  is  destroyed  (page  20)  ;  more 
labor  is  wasted  than  is  usefully  productive ;  but 
what  is  far  worse,  the  substance  of  the  land  is 
taken   in  unimaginable  measure,  and  dumped 


194    The  Country-Life  Movement 

wholesale  into  endless  sewer  and  drainage  sys- 
tems. It  would  seem  as  if  the  human  race 
were  bent  on  finding  a  process  by  which 
it  can  most  quickly  ravish  the  earth  and 
make  it  incapable  of  maintaining  its  teeming 
millions.  We  are  rapidly  threading  the  coun- 
try with  vast  conduits  by  which  the  fertility  of 
the  land  can  flow  away  unhindered  into  the 
unreachable  reservoirs  of  the  seas. 

The  conservation  of  food. 

The  fundamental  problem  for  the  human 
race  is  to  feed  itself.  It  has  been  a  relatively 
easy  matter  to  provide  food  and  clothing  thus 
far,  because  the  earth  yet  has  a  small  popula- 
tion, and  because  there  have  always  been  new 
lands  to  be  brought  into  requisition.  We  shall 
eliminate  the  plagues  and  the  devastations  of 
war,  and  the  population  of  the  earth  will  tre- 
mendously increase  in  the  centuries  to  come. 
When  the  new  lands  have  all  been  opened  to 
cultivation,  and  when  thousands  of  millions 
of  human  beings  occupy  the  earth,  the  demand 
for  food  will  constitute   a   problem  which  we 


Country  Life  and  Conservation      195 

scarcely  apprehend  to-day.  We  shall  then  be 
obliged  to  develop  self-sustaining  methods  of 
maintaining  the  producing- power  of  land. 

We  think  we  have  developed  intensive  and 
perfected  systems  of  agriculture ;  but  as  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  and  speaking  broadly,  a  permanent 
organized  agriculture  is  yet  unknown.  In 
certain  regions,  as  in  Great  Britain,  the  produc- 
ing-power  of  the  land  has  been  increased  over 
a  long  series  of  years,  but  this  has  been  ac- 
complished to  a  great  extent  by  the  transporta- 
tion of  fertilizing  materials  from  the  ends  of 
the  earth.  The  fertility  of  England  has  been 
drawn  largely  from  the  prairies  and  plains  of 
America,  from  which  it  has  secured  its  food 
supplies,  from  the  guano  deposits  in  islands  of 
the  seas,  from  the  bones  of  men  in  Egypt  and 
the  battlefields  of  Europe. 

We  begin  to  understand  how  it  is  possible  to 
maintain  the  producing-power  of  the  surface  of 
the  earth,  and  there  are  certain  regions  in  which 
our  knowledge  has  been  put  effectively  into 
operation,  but  we  have  developed  no  conscious 
plan  or  system  in  a  large  way  for  securing  this 


196    The  Country-Life  Movement 

result.  It  is  the  ultimate  problem  of  the  race 
to  devise  a  permanent  system  of  agriculture. 
It  is  the  greatest  question  that  can  confront 
mankind ;  and  the  question  is  yet  all  un- 
solved. 

The  best  husbandry  is  not  in  the  new  regions. 

The  best  agriculture,  considered  in  reference 
to  the  permanency  of  its  results,  develops  in 
old  regions,  where  the  skinning  process  has 
passed,  where  the  hide  has  been  sold,  and 
where  people  come  back  to  utilize  what  is  left. 
The  skinning  process  is  proceeding  at  this 
minute  in  the  bountiful  new  lands  of  the 
United  States ;  and  in  parts  of  the  older  states, 
and  even  also  in  parts  of  the  newer  ones,  not 
only  the  skin  but  the    tallow  has    been  sold. 

We  are  always  seeking  growing-room,  and 
we  have  found  it.  But  now  the  Western  civili- 
zation has  met  the  Eastern,  and  the  world  is 
circumferenced.  We  shall  develop  the  tropics 
and  push  far  toward  the  poles ;  but  we  have 
now  fairly  discovered  the  island  that  we  call  the 
earth,  and  we  must  begin  to  make  the  most  of  it. 


Country  Life  and  Conservation     197 

Another  philosophy  of  agriculture. 

Practically  all  our  agriculture  has  been  de- 
veloped on  a  rainfall  basis.  There  is  ancient 
irrigation  experience,  to  be  sure,  but  the  great 
agriculture  of  the  world  has  been  growing  away 
from  these  regions.  Agriculture  is  still  moving 
on,  seeking  new  regions ;  and  it  is  rapidly  in- 
vading regions  of  small  rainfall. 

About  six-tenths  of  the  land  surface  of  the 
globe  must  be  farmed,  if  farmed  at  all,  under 
some  system  of  water-saving.  Of  this,  about 
one-tenth  is  redeemable  by  irrigation,  and  the 
remainder  by  some  system  of  utilization  of 
deficient  rainfall,  or  by  what  is  inappropriately 
known  as  dry-farming.  The  complementary 
practices  of  irrigation  and  dry-farming  will  de- 
velop a  wholly  new  scheme  of  agriculture  and 
a  new  philosophy  of  country  life  (page  44). 

Even  in  heavy  rainfall  countries  there  is  often 
such  waste  of  water  from  run-off  that  the  lands 
suffer  severely  from  droughts.  No  doubt  the 
hilly  lands  of  our  best  farming  regions  are  greatly 
reduced  in  their  crop-producing  power  because 


198    The  Country-Life  Movement 

people  do  not  prepare  against  drought  as  con- 
sciously as  they  provide  against  frost  (page  52). 
It  is  often  said  that  we  shall  water  Eastern 
lands  by  irrigation,  and  I  think  that  we  shall ; 
but  our  first  obligation  is  to  save  the  rainfall 
water  by  some  system  of  farm-management  or 
dry-farming. 

Agriculture  rests  on  the  saving  of  water. 

The  obligation  of  the  farmer. 

The  farmer  is  rapidly  beginning  to  realize 
his  obligation  to  society.  It  is  usual  to  say 
that  the  farmer  feeds  the  world,  but  the  larger 
fact  is  that  he  saves  the  world. 

The  economic  system  depends  on  him. 
Wall  Street  watches  the  crops. 

As  cities  increase  proportionately  in  popula- 
tion, the  farmer  assumes  greater  relative  im- 
portance, and  he  becomes  more  and  more  a 
marked  man. 

Careful  and  scientific  husbandry  is  rising  in 
this  new  country.  We  have  come  to  a  realiza- 
tion of  the  fact  that  our  resources  are  not  un- 
limited.    The  mining  of  fertilizing   materials 


Country  Life  and  Conservation     199 

for  transportation  to  a  few  spots  on  the  earth 
will  some  day  cease.  We  must  make  the  farm- 
ing sustain  itself,  at  the  same  time  that  it  pro- 
vides the  supplies  for  mankind. 

We  all  recognize  the  necessity  of  the  other 
great  occupations  to  a  well-developed  civiliza- 
tion ;  but  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  the  farmer 
is  the  final  support.  On  him  depends  the  ex- 
istence of  the  race.  No  method  of  chemical 
synthesis  can  provide  us  with  the  materials  of 
food  and  clothing  and  shelter,  and  with  all  the 
good  luxuries  that  spring  from  the  bosom  of 
the  earth. 

I  know  of  no  better  conservators  than  our 
best  farmers.  They  feel  their  responsibility. 
Quite  the  ideal  of  conservation  is  illustrated  by 
a  farmer  of  my  acquaintance  who  saves  every 
product  of  his  land  and  has  developed  a  system 
of  self-enriching  live-stock  husbandry,  who  has 
harnessed  his  small  stream  to  light  his  premises 
and  do  much  of  his  work,  who  turns  his  drain- 
age waters  into  productive  uses,  and  who  is  now 
troubled  that  he  cannot  make  some  use  of  the 
winds  that  are  going  to  waste  on  his  farm. 


200    The  Country-Life  Movement 

The  obligation  of  the  conservation  movement. 

What  I  have  meant  to  impress  is  the  fact 
that  the  farmer  is  the  ultimate  conservator  of 
the  resources  of  the  earth.  He  is  near  the 
cradle  of  supplies,  near  the  sources  of  streams, 
next  the  margin  of  the  forests,  on  the  hills  and 
in  the  valleys  and  on  the  plains  just  where  the 
resources  lie.  He  is  in  contact  with  the  original 
and  raw  materials.  Any  plan  of  conservation 
that  overlooks  this  fact  cannot  meet  the  situa- 
tion. The  conservation  movement  must  help 
the  farmer  to  keep  and  save  the  race. 


PERSONAL   SUGGESTIONS 

In  the  preceding  pages  I  have  tried  to  de- 
velop the  reader's  point  of  view.  To  do  this, 
I  have  gone  over  very  briefly  some  of  the  ques- 
tions that  are  now  actively  under  discussion. 
There  are  other  matters,  of  a  more  personal 
nature,  that  need  to  be  discussed,  or  at  least 
mentioned,  in  connection  with  even  a  sketchy 
consideration  of  the  country-life  movement ; 
and  some  of  these  I  now  place  together  in  a 
closing  budget. 

The  open  country  must  solve  its  own  problems. 

It  may  first  be  said  that  the  reconstruction 
of  the  open  country  must  depend  in  the  main 
on  the  efforts  of  the  country  people  themselves. 
We  are  glad  of  all  interchange  of  populations  ; 
the  influx  of  country  blood  has  thus  far  been 
invaluable  to  cities;  the  outgo  of  city  people 
has  set  new  aspirations  into  the  country,  and 


202    The  Country-Life  Movement 

it  is  still  necessary  to  call  on  the  cities  for  labor 
in  times  of  pressure :  but  stated  in  its  large 
terms,  the  open  country  will  rise  no  higher 
than  the  aspirations  of  the  people  who  live 
there,  and  the  problems  must  be  solved  in  such 
way  that  they  will  meet  the  conditions  as  they 
exist  on  the  spot. 

Profitable  farming  is  not  a  sufficient  object  in 
life. 

It  may  then  be  said  that  it  is  the  first  duty 
of  every  man  to  earn  a  decent  living  for  him- 
self and  those  dependent  on  him ;  and  a  coun- 
tryman cannot  expect  to  have  much  influence 
on  his  time  and  community  until  he  makes  his 
farm  pay  in  dollars  and  cents. 

But  the  final  object  in  life  is  not  to  make 
money,  but  to  use  money  in  developing  a  higher 
type  of  endeavor  and  a  better  neighborhood. 
The  richest  farming  regions  do  not  necessarily 
have  the  best  society  or  even  the  best  living 
conditions.  Social  usefulness  must  become  a 
fact  in  country  districts.  The  habit  of  life  in 
the  usual  farm  family  is  to  take  everything  to 


Personal  Suggestions  203 

itself  and    to  keep   it.     Standards   of  service 
must  take  the  place  of  standards  of  property. 

New  country  professions. 

The  country-life  movement  does  not  imply 
that  all  young  persons  who  hereafter  shall  re- 
main in  the  country  are  to  be  actual  farmers. 
The  practice  of  customary  professions  and  oc- 
cupations will  take  on  more  importance  in  coun- 
try districts.  The  country  physician,  veteri- 
nary, pastor,  lawyer,  and  teacher  are  to  extend 
greatly  in  influence  and  opportunity. 

But  aside  from  all  this,  entirely  new  occu- 
pations and  professions  are  to  arise,  even  the 
names  of  which  are  not  yet  known  to  us. 
Some  ot  them  are  already  under  way.  There 
will  be  established  out  in  the  open  country 
plant  doctors,  plant-breeders,  soil  experts,  I 
health  experts,  pruning  and  spraying  experts,  j 
forest  experts,  farm  machinery  experts,  drain- 
age and  irrigation  experts,  recreation  experts, 
market  experts,  and  many  others.  There  will 
be  housekeeping  experts  or  supervisors. 
There  will  be  need  for  overseers  of  affiliated 


204    The  Country-Life  Movement 

organizations  and  stock  companies.  These 
will  all  be  needed  for  the  purpose  of  giving 
special  advice  and  direction  (page  78).  We 
shall  be  making  new  applications  of  rural  law, 
of  business  methods  for  agricultural  regions, 
new  types  of  organization.  The  people  will 
find  that  it  will  pay  to  support  such  professions 
or  agents  as  these. 

Country  life  will  become  more  complex  as 
rapidly  as  it  becomes  more  efficient. 

The  personal  resources. 

The  attitude  toward  one's  world  has  much 
to  do  both  with  his  effectiveness  and  with  his 
satisfaction  in  living ;  and  this  is  specially  true 
with  the  farmer,  because  he  is  so  much  alone 
and  has  so  few  conventional  sources  of  enter- 
tainment. It  may  be  important  to  provide 
new  entertainment  for  the  farmer ;  but  it  is 
much  more  important  to  develop  his  personal 
resources. 

The  simple  life,  as  Pastor  Wagner  so  well 
explains,  is  a  state  of  mind.  It  is  a  simplifica- 
tion  of  desire,   a  certain    directness    of  effort 


Personal  Suggestions  205 

and  of  purpose  that  brings  us  quickly  to  a 
result,  and  such  an  attitude  that  we  derive  our 
satisfactions  from  the  humble  and  the  near-at- 
hand.  The  countryman  is  the  man  who  has 
the  personal  touch  with  his  environment.  ""^ 
With  the  increasing  differentiation  of  country 
life,  it  is  of  the  first  importance  that  the  country 
people  do  not  lose  their  simplicity  of  desires. 

The  meaning  of  the  environment. 

It  is  too  little  appreciated  that  every  natural 
object  makes  a  twofold  appeal  to  the  human 
mind :  its  appeal  in  the  terms  of  its  physical 
or  material  uses,  and  its  appeal  to  our  sense 
of  beauty  and  of  personal  satisfaction.  As 
the  people  progresses  in  evolution,  the  public 
mind  becomes  constantly  more  sensitive  to  the 
conditions  in  which  we  live,  and  the  appeal  to 
the  spiritual  satisfaction  of  life  constantly 
becomes  stronger.  Not  only  shall  the  physi- 
cal needs  of  life  be  met,  but  the  earth  will 
constantly  be  made  a  more  satisfactory  place 
in  which  to  live. 

We  must  not  only  save  our  forests  in  order 


2o6    The  Country-Life  Movement 

that  they  may  yield  timber  and  conserve  our 
water  supplies,  but  also  that  they  may  adorn 
and  dominate  the  landscape  and  contribute  to 
the  meaning  of  scenery.  It  is  important  that 
our  coal  supplies  be  conserved  not  only  for 
their  use  in  manufacture  and  the  arts,  but  also 
that  smoke  does  not  vitiate  the  atmosphere  and 
render  it  unhealthful,  and  discolor  the  objects 
in  the  landscape.  It  is  of  the  greatest  impor- 
tance that  water  supplies  be  conserved  by 
storage  reservoirs  and  other  means,  but  this 
conservation  should  be  accomplished  in  such  a 
way  as  not  to  menace  health  or  offend  the  eye 
or  destroy  the  beauty  of  contiguous  landscape. 
The  impounding  of  waters  without  regard  to 
preserving  natural  water-falls,  streams,  and  other 
scenery,  is  a  mark  of  a  commercial  and  selfish 
age,  and  is  a  procedure  that  cannot  be  tolerated 
in  a  highly  developed  society.  It  is  important 
that  regulations  be  enacted  regarding  the  opera- 
tion of  steam  roads  through  woody  districts,  not 
only  that  the  timber  may  be  saved,  but  also 
that  the  natural  beauty  of  the  landscape  may 
be    protected    from    fire   and   other  forms    of 


Personal  Suggestions  207 

destruction.  The  fertility  of  the  soil  must  be 
saved,  not  only  that  products  may  be  raised 
with  which  to  feed  and  clothe  the  people,  but 
also  that  the  beauty  of  thrifty  and  productive 
farms  may  be  saved  to  the  landscape.  The 
property-right  in  natural  scenery  is  a  tenure  of 
the  people,  and  the  best  conservation  of  natu- 
ral resources  is  impossible  until  this  fact  is 
recognized. 

On  this  point  the  Commission  on  Country 
Life  makes  the  following  statement :  "In  esti- 
mating our  natural  resources  we  must  not  for- 
get the  value  of  scenery.  This  is  a  distinct 
asset,  and  it  will  be  more  recognized  as  time 
goes  on.  It  will  be  impossible  to  develop  a 
satisfactory  country  life  without  conserving  all 
the  beauty  of  landscape  and  developing  the 
people  to  the  point  of  appreciating  it.  In  parts 
of  the  East,  a  regular  system  of  parking  the 
open  country  of  the  entire  state  is  already 
begun,  constructing  the  roads,  preserving  the 
natural  features,  and  developing  the  latent 
beauty  in  such  a  way  that  the  whole  country 
becomes  part  of  one  continuing  landscape  treat- 


2o8    The  Country-Life  Movement 

ment.  This  in  no  way  interferes  with  the 
agricultural  utilization  of  the  land,  but  rather 
increases  it.  The  scenery  is,  in  fact,  capitalized, 
so  that  it  adds  to  the  property  values  and  con- 
tributes to  local  patriotism  and  to  the  thrift  of 
the  commonwealth." 

Historic  monuments. 

The  general  tendency  of  our  time  is  to  dump 
everything  into  the  cities,  particularly  into  the 
large  cities.  It  is  there  that  we  assemble  our 
treasures  of  art,  our  libraries,  our  dramatic 
skill,  our  specimens  of  statuary  and  architec- 
ture ;  and  it  is  there  that  the  aspiring  men  also 
assemble  to  work  out  their  destinies.  And  yet 
there  have  been  events  in  the  open  country. 
Great  men  have  lived  there.  Things  have 
come  to  pass.  We  should  be  interested  to 
record  these  events  of  the  rural  country,  as 
well  as  the  events  that  are  associated  with  the 
congested  city.  Persons  of  quickened  intelli- 
gence will  not  live  contentedly  in  the  outer 
country  if  it  provides  nothing  more  than  sub- 
sistence.    Every  new  memorial  in  the  farming 


Personal  Suggestions  209 

country  is  one  additional  reason  for  people  to 
live  there. 

The  open  country  as  well  as  the  city  has  a 
history ;  but  one  would  not  discover  the  fact 
from  monuments  that  he  may  see. 

It  may  not  be  possible  now  to  erect  elaborate 
monuments  far  in  the  country  to  commemorate 
historical  events,  but  records  may  be  made,  and 
it  is  at  least  possible  to  roll  up  a  pile  of  stones. 

Improvement  societies. 

Of  late  years  there  has  sprung  up  a  line  of 
societies  in  villages  and  small  cities  whose 
province  it  is  to  create  public  sentiment  for  the 
betterment  of  the  place  in  general  good  looks, 
and  which,  for  lack  of  a  better  name,  are  gen- 
erally collectively  known  as  "  village  improve- 
ment societies."  These  organizations  have 
had  much  effect  in  making  the  villages  attrac- 
tive. Their  influence  extends  far  and  wide, 
but  the  organization  itself  in  any  case  ought  to 
take  in  all  the  surrounding  territory,  with  the 
purpose  to  secure  a  cooperative  action  between 
town    and   country   (page    122).      The   entire 


2IO    The  Country-Life  Movement 

region,  not  city  or  town  alone,  should  be  or- 
ganized. 

In  many  rural  communities,  there  could 
well  be  an  open-country  improvement  society ; 
or  an  organization  might  be  formed,  from  the 
church  or  otherwise,  to  care  for  a  particular 
interest,  as  the  school  ground  or  the  cemetery. 
The  average  country  cemetery  particularly 
needs  attention. 

The  care  of  all  the  public  or  semi-public 
property  of  a  township  or  a  neighborhood  is 
somebody's  responsibility,  and  this  responsi- 
bility should  be  recognized  in  organization. 
The  pride  of  the  community  could  be  greatly 
stimulated  if  a  group  of  people  should  associate 
to  look  after  roadsides,  lake  shores  and  river 
banks,  waste  places,  deserted  and  dilapidated 
buildings,  weeds,  raw  spots,  paths,  dangerous 
places,  mosquito  ponds,  breeding  places  of  in- 
sects, stray  dogs,  horse  sheds,  trees,  birds,  wild 
flowers,  telegraph  and  telephone  depredations, 
cemeteries,  church  grounds,  school  grounds, 
almshouse  grounds,  picnic  grounds,  historic 
places,  patriotic  events,  bits  of  good  scenery. 


Personal  Suggestions  211 

and  to  give  advice  on  lawns,  back-yards  and 
barn-yards,  advertising  signs. 

Entertainment. 

All  persons  seem  to  be  agreed  that  more 
entertainment  and  recreation  should  be  pro- 
vided for  country  residents ;  but  it  does  not 
follow  that  vaudeville,  and  the  usual  line  of 
moving  pictures,  and  the  traveling  concert 
would  add  anything  really  worth  while,  al- 
though these  are  often  recommended  by  town 
folk.  The  Board  Walk  kind  of  pageant  may 
very  well  be  left  at  the  sea-shore. 

But  we  certainly  need  entertainment  that 
will  help  country  people  over  the  hard  and 
dry  places,  and  raise  their  lives  out  of  mo- 
notony. The  guiding  principles  are  two :  an 
entertainment  that  shall  express  the  best  that 
there  is  in  country  life ;  one  that  shall  set  the 
people  themselves  at  work  to  produce  it,  rather 
than  to  bring  it  in  bodily  from  the  outside. 

I  would  not  eliminate  good  things  merely 
because  they  come  from  the  outside,  and  no 
one   would   deny  the   countryman    the    touch 


212    The  Country-Life  Movement 

with  any  of  the  masterpieces ;  but  I  am  speak- 
ing now  of  a  form  of  effort  that  shall  quicken 
an  entire  country  district  and  leave  a  perma- 
nent impression  on  it.  I  would  rather  leave 
the  situation  as  it  is  than  to  introduce  the 
meaningless  performances  of  the  city  thorough- 
fare and  the  resorts. 

The  movement  to  provide  new  and  better 
sports,  games,  and  general  recreation  is  now 
well  under  way,  and  1  do  not  need  to  explain 
it  here ;  but  two  things  ought  to  begin  to  re- 
ceive attention :  music  and  drama. 

The  music  spirit  seems  to  be  dying  out  in 
the  country.  I  hear  very  little  joyous  song 
there,  even  though  the  people  may  be  joyous. 
The  habit  of  self-expression  in  song  and  music 
needs  much  to  be  encouraged  in  home  and 
school  and  grange  and  church.  I  think  the  lack 
is  in  part  due  to  the  over-mastering  influence 
of  professional  town  music,  and  in  part  to 
the  absence  of  study  of  simple  country  forms. 
Simplicity  is  not  now  the  fashion  in  music. 
The  single  player  with  a  simple  theme  and 
the   single    singer  with   a  melodious   and  un- 


Personal  Suggestions  213 

trilled  strain  are  not  much  heard  at  gatherings 
now.  Some  of  the  best  singing  I  hear  is  now 
and  then  out  among  the  folk, —  a  simple  direct 
song  as  plain  and  sweet  as  a  bird's  note.  I 
hope  we  shall  not  lose  it. 

A  drama  of  some  kind  is  very  much  needed 
for  country  districts.  It  should  be  a  new  form, 
something  in  the  way  of  representing  the  end 
of  the  planting,  the  harvest,  the  seasons,  the 
leading  crops,  the  dairy,  the  woods,  the  history 
and  traditions  of  the  neighborhood  or  the 
region.  Many  of  the  pieces  should  be  acted 
out  of  doors,  and  they  should  be  produced 
chiefly  by  local  talent.  Such  simple  plays  for 
the  most  part  need  yet  to  be  written,  but  the 
themes  are  numerous.  Why  not  have  a  festival 
or  a  generous  spectacle  of  Indian  corn,  and 
then  fill  the  whole  occasion  full  of  the  feeling 
of  the  corn  ?  As  pure  entertainment,  this 
would  be  worth  any  number  of  customary 
theatricals,  and  as  a  means  of  bringing  out  the 
talent  of  the  community  it  would  have  very 
positive  social  value.  The  traveling  play 
usually  leaves  nothing  behind  it. 


214    The  Country-Life  Movement 

The  themes  for  short,  simple,  and  strong 
dramatic  presentation  are  almost  numberless,  — 
such  episodes  and  events,  for  example,  as  the 
plowing,  the  reaping,  the  husking,  the  horse- 
shoeing, the  hay-stacking,  the  wood-chopping, 
the  threshing,  the  sugaring,  the  raising  of  the 
barn,  the  digging  of  the  well,  the  herding  of 
the  cattle,  the  felling  of  the  tree,  the  building 
of  the  church,  the  making  of  the  wagon,  the 
bridging  of  the  creek,  the  constructing  of  the 
boat,  the  selling  of  the  farm,  the  Indians,  the 
settlers,  the  burst  of  spring,  the  dead  of  winter, 
the  season  of  bloom,  the  heyday  of  summer. 

We  do  not  sufficiently  appreciate  how  wide- 
spread and  native  is  the  desire  to  dramatize. 
The  ritual  of  fraternal  orders  is  an  illustration. 
We  see  it  in  the  charades  of  evening  parties. 
The  old  school  "exhibition"  made  a  wonder- 
ful appeal.  Every  community  likes  to  see  its 
own  people  "  take  parts."  At  nearly  every  im- 
portant grange  meeting,  and  at  other  country 
meetings,  some  one  must  "  recite,"  and  the  reci- 
tation usually  has  characters,  situations,  and 
"  take-offs."    It  is  too  bad  that  we  do  not  have 


Personal  Suggestions  215 

better  literature  to  put  in  the  hands  of  these 
reciters ;  in  the  meantime,  I  hope  that  the  cus- 
tom will  not  die  out. 

One  who  has  seen  the  consummate  Passion 
Play  at  Oberammergau  must  have  had  the 
thought  impressed  on  him  that  there  is  much 
latent  talent  among  the  country  folk,  and  also 
that  it  is  much  worth  the  while  of  a  community 
to  develop  this  talent.  Aside  from  its  tran- 
scendent theme,  this  stupendous  play  appeals 
to  the  world  because  of  its  simplicity  and  direct- 
ness and  because  of  its  reality,  for  these  arc 
the  very  kind  of  folk  that  might  have  taken 
part  in  the  mighty  drama  had  the  Great  Master 
lived  in  Oberammergau. 

The  nativeness  of  the  play  impresses  one. 
The  very  absence  of  so  much  that  we  associate 
with  the  ordinary  drama  gives  the  play  an 
appeal,  —  the  absence  of  the  studied  stride  and 
strut,  of  the  exaggerated  make-ups,  and  of 
the  over-doing  of  the  parts.  The  play  is 
grounded  in  the  lives  of  the  people  in  the 
community. 

We  cannot  expect  another  place  to  become 


21 6    The  Country-Life  Movement 

an  Oberammergau,  but  it  is  possible  for  some- 
thing good  to  come  out  of  any  spot.  This 
thought  is  vividly  expressed  by  W.  T.  Stead 
in  his  account  of  the  Passion  Play: 

"As  I  write,  it  is  now  two  days  after  the 
Passion  Play.  The  crowd  has  departed,  the 
village  is  once  more  quiet  and  still.  The  swal- 
lows are  twittering  in  the  eaves,  the  blue  and 
cloudless  sky  over-arches  the  amphitheater  of 
hills.  All  is  peace,  and  the  whole  dramatic 
troupe  pursue  with  equanimity  the  even  tenor 
of  their  ordinary  life.  Most  of  the  best  players 
are  woodcarvers ;  the  others  are  peasants  or 
local  tradesmen.  Their  royal  robes  or  their 
rabbinical  costumes  laid  aside,  they  go  about 
their  ordinary  work  in  the  ordinary  way  as  ordi- 
nary mortals.  But  what  a  revelation  it  is  of 
the  mine  of  latent  capacity,  musical,  dramatic, 
intellectual,  in  the  human  race,  that  a  single 
mountain  village  can  furnish,  under  a  capable 
guidance,  and  with  adequate  inspiration,  such  a 
host  competent  to  set  forth  such  a  play  from 
its  tinkers,  tailors,  plowmen,  bakers,  and  the 
like !     It  is  not  native  capacity  that  is  lacking 


Personal  Suggestions  217 

to  mankind.  It  is  the  guiding  brain,  the  patient 
love,  the  careful  education,  and  the  stimulus 
and  inspiration  of  a  great  idea.  But,  given  these, 
every  village  of  country  yokels  from  Dorset  to 
Caithness  might  develop  artists  as  noble  and 
as  devoted  as  those  of  Oberammergau." 

The  business  of  farming. 

After  all  is  said  and  done,  the  first  question 
still  remains,  —  the  opportunity  to  make  a  good 
living  on  a  farm,  and  the  possibility  of  leading  ( 
a  life  that  will  be  personally  satisfactory. 

There  has  never  been  a  time  when  farming 
as  a  whole  has  been  so  prosperous  as  now,  not- 
withstanding the  fact  that  there  are  hardships 
in  many  regions.  The  whole  occupation  is 
undergoing  a  process  of  readjustment,  and  it  is 
natural  that  the  readjustment  has  become  more 
complete  and  perfect  in  some  places  and  in 
some  kinds  of  farming  than  in  others.  We 
have  but  recently  passed  through  a  time  in 
which  the  farming  business,  except  in  special 
regions  or  special  cases,  could  not  be  really 
profitable  and  attractive. 


21 8    The  Country-Life  Movement 

To  make  a  good  and  satisfactory  living  on 
the  farm  is  a  matter  both  of  temperament  and 
of  first-class  training.  There  are  great  series 
of  city  vocations  in  which  any  person  with  fair 
ability  can  succeed ;  but  farming  is  a  personal 
business  and  each  man  is  his  own  manager.  No 
one  should  ever  go  into  farming  impersonally. 

Many  persons  are  making  a  comfortable  liv- 
ing on  farms,  a  better  living  in  fact  than  persons 
of  similar  ability  and  expending  similar  energy 
are  making  in  town.     Other  persons  are  failing. 

I  am  not  advising  anybody  to  establish  him- 
self in  the  open  country ;  but  I  am  saying  that 
the  time  has  now  come  when  good  talent  need 
not  avoid  the  open  country. 

This  is  a  good  time  for  the  well-trained  farm- 
minded  young  man  or  woman  to  go  into  agri- 
culture ;  but  one  should  be  sure  that  he  has 
the  qualifications. 

There  is  no  need  that  farming  provide  only 
a  narrow  and  deadening  life.  One  may  express 
there  all  the  resources  of  a  good  education. 

The  college  man  is  now  beginning  to  affect 
the  sentiment  and  the  practice  in  rural  commu- 


Personal  Suggestions  219 

nities.  Formerly  a  college  man  going  back  to 
the  farm  was  likely  to  be  the  subject  of  distrust 
and  even  ridicule.  This  attitude  is  passing 
very  rapidly  in  the  good  rural  regions. 

In  his  public  relations,  most  of  the  ambition 
of  the  countryman  has  been  to  hold  office.  It 
is  a  form  of  small  political  entertainment,  too 
often  with  no  thought  of  any  particular  service 
to  the  community.  We  have  a  wholly  distorted 
idea  of  the  "  honor  "  of  holding  office  ;  there  is 
no  honor  in  an  office  unless  it  contributes  some- 
thing worth  while  to  society.  We  cannot  ex- 
pect strong  leadership  to  develop  in  the  open 
country  until  there  are  better  things  to  look 
forward  to  than  merely  to  hold  the  small  polit- 
ical places.  Many  opportunities  for  rendering 
prominent  public  service  will  now  arise  in  the 
farm  country ;  perhaps  this  book  will  suggest 
a  few  of  them.  And  it  ought  to  be  some  satis- 
faction to  a  young  man  or  woman  to  know  that 
he  or  she  is  part  of  a  world-movement,  and 
to  feel  that  it  is  no  longer  necessary  to  ex- 
plain or  to  apologize  for  being  a  countryman 
or  a  farmer. 


220    The  Country-Life  Movement 

We  have  been  living  in  a  get-rich-quick  age. 
Persons  have  wanted  to  make  fortunes.  Our 
business  enterprises  are  organized  with  that  end 
in  view.  Persons  are  now  asking  how  they 
may  Hve  a  satisfactory  Hfe,  rather  than  placing 
the  whole  emphasis  on  the  financial  turnover 
of  a  business.  There  is  greater  need  of  more 
good  farmers  than  of  more  millionaires. 

My  reader  may  wish  to  know  what  consti- 
tutes a  good  farmer.  I  think  that  the  require- 
ments of  a  good  farmer  are  at  least  four : 

The  ability  to  make  a  full  and  comfortable 
living  from  the  land  ; 

to  rear  a  family  carefully  and  well ; 

to  be  of  good  service  to  the  community ; 

to  leave  the  farm  more  productive  than  it 
was  when  he  took  it. 


7614    6 


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